Rabih Alameddine
Rabih Alameddine
Rabih Alameddineis a Lebanese-American painter and writer. He was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents. He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left at age 17 to live first in England and then in California. A lover of mathematics, he earned a degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angelesand a Master of Business in San Francisco. He began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. The author of...
NationalityLebanese
ProfessionArtist
CountryLebanon
shakespeare
I read Shakespeare when I was 14 because it's what we were taught.
allowed arabic french school
In school in Lebanon, we were not allowed to speak Arabic during breaks - it had to be French or English.
park pay pick whether
If you want to know whether soccer is big in America, pick a weekend, go to any park in the land, and pay attention. We're there. We've always been.
delusion enjoy gave love players
I gave up on the delusion that these players enjoy soccer as much as I do, that they play for the love of the game.
pick stopped trying
Before prognostication, a disclaimer: I have never been able to pick a winner. Not that it has ever stopped me from trying to. Well, it has stopped me from buying stock, but let's not talk about that.
rampant sports
Homophobia is rampant in soccer, probably more so than in any other sport. I'm not sure why.
regular shocks until
I oscillate between being cynical and being naive on a regular basis. I always think that not much shocks me until something much too obvious does.
amazing bomb both distract hear necessary ourselves
If you go through any culture that has had wars, go to the bomb shelters, and you'll hear some amazing stories. Yes, it's a necessary thing that we actually both distract ourselves and it's a way to bond.
ceiling covered dream family father four home house left obscene political remains since summer time took
In the summer of 1988, my father took me up to look at the remains of our home, the dream house that he'd built. It was my first time since our family left four years earlier. Political and obscene graffiti covered the half-torn walls. There was no ceiling and surprisingly no floor: the parquet, the stone, the marble, all looted.
across arabic shocked whenever
Whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative.
uses
Every writer uses his own way to motivate oneself.
rejected
When I wrote my first book, 'Koolaids,' I felt rejected and not wanted.
When I was younger, I used to find stories about divas charming. Not much anymore.
country solve
There are over 1 million refugees in Lebanon, a country of 4 million people. How do we solve that? I have no idea. What's going on, I really don't know.