Quotes by Hanif Kureishi

About Hanif Kureishi:

Hanif Kureishi is a British Pakistani playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker and novelist. In 2008, The Times included Kureishi in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Die Belohnung für Langeweile sind Sicherheit und Geborgenheit.

Hanif Kureishi

Selbst die Verwandten der Berühmten [sind] berühmt, denn Ruhm [ist] erblich.

Hanif Kureishi

Now, watching her sleep, and closing his eyes, he felt, in this particular intimacy - stowed beneath her duvet - that he was intruding. At the same time, he knew, settling down, you couldn´t dislike anyone you'd seen sleep

Hanif Kureishi

But you're beautiful, and the beautiful should be given whatever they want." "Hey, what about the ugly ones?" "The ugly ones." She poked her tongue out. "It's their fault if their ugly. They're to be blamed, not pitied.

Hanif Kureishi

You see, I have come to believe in self-help, individual initiative, the love of what you do, and the full development of all individuals. I am constantly disappointed by how little we expect of ourselves and of the world.

Hanif Kureishi

The city blew the windows of my brain wide open. But being in a place so bright, fast and brilliant made you vertiginous with possibility: it didn't necessarily help you grasp those possibilities. I still had no idea what I was going to do. I felt di...

Hanif Kureishi

I admired him more than anyone but I didn't wish him well. It was that I preferred him to me and wanted to be him. I coveted his talents, face, style. I wanted to wake up with them all transferred to me.

Hanif Kureishi

I began to enjoy my own generosity; I felt the pleasure of pleasing others, especially as this was accompanied by money-power. I was paying for them; they were grateful, they had to be; and they could no longer see me as a failure.

Hanif Kureishi

He died at the wrong time, when there was much to be clarified and established. They hadn’t even started to be grown-ups together. There was this piece of heaven, this little girl he’d carried around the shop on his shoulders; and then one day sh...

Hanif Kureishi

Maybe you never stop feeling like an eight-year-old in front of your parents. You resolve to be your mature self, to react in this considered way rather than that elemental way, to breathe evenly from the bottom of your stomach and to see your parent...

Hanif Kureishi

Yes, Eleanor loathed herself and yet required praise, which she then never believed.

Hanif Kureishi

Women are brought up to think of others. [...] When I start to think of myself I feel sick.

Hanif Kureishi

I didn't want to be educated. It wasn't the right time of my life for concentration, it really wasn't. The spirit of the age among the people I knew manifested itself as general drift and idleness. We didn't want money. What for? We could get by, liv...

Hanif Kureishi

Desire is naughty and doesn't conform to our ideals, which is why we have such a need of them. Desire mocks all human endeavour and makes it worthwhile. Desire is the original anarchist and undercover agent – no wonder people want it arrested and k...

Hanif Kureishi

If you never left anything or anyone there would be no room for the new. Naturally, to move on is an infidelity -- to others, to the past, to old notions of oneself. Perhaps every day should contain at least one essential infidelity or necessary betr...

Hanif Kureishi

You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them.

Hanif Kureishi

Dear God, teach me to be careless.

Hanif Kureishi

I know love is dark work; you have to get your hands dirty. If you hold back, nothing interesting happens. At the same time, you have to find the right distance between people. Too close, and they overwhelm you; too far and they abandon you. How to h...

Hanif Kureishi

I can only think how good life on earth can be, at times. What grief two people can give to one another! And what pleasure!

Hanif Kureishi

My son, there may be a time when I explain these things to you, because there may be a time when I understand them.

Hanif Kureishi

Author Bio

  • NameHanif Kureishi
  • DescriptionEnglish playwright, screenwriter, novelist
  • BornDecember 5, 1954
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPlaywright; Writer; Novelist; Screenwriter
  • AwardsCommander Of The Order Of The British Empire; PEN Pinter Prize