{"author":"Mohsin Hamid","author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid","total_quotes":66,"quotes":[{"text":"Some men drink the blood of other men, all I drink is wine.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["blood","sin","wine"],"id":15420,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"Sufi poetry is, in a sense, self-help poetry about how to live a decent life, how to deal with your mortality.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["life","live","sense "],"id":43631,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"For if there were a list of cosmic things that unite us, reader and writer, visible as it scrolled up into the distance, like the introduction to some epic science-fiction film, then shining brightly on that list would be the fact that we exist in a financial universe that is subject to massive gravitational pulls from states. States tug at us. States bend us. And, tirelessly, states seek to determine our orbits.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["bureaucracy","government","state","states"],"id":44696,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"When terrorism strikes, divisive anger is a natural response.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["terrorism","response","natural "],"id":55446,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"Human beings don’t necessarily exist inside of (or correspond to) the neat racial, gendered or national boxes into which we often unthinkingly place them.It’s a mistake to ask literature to reinforce such structures. Literature tends to crack them. Literature is where we free ourselves.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["literature"],"id":59436,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"Secrets make life more interesting. You can be in a crowded room with someone and touch them without touching, just with a look, because they know a part of you no one else knows. And whenever you're with them, the two of you are alone, because the you they see no one else can.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["connection","connection-with-people","friendship","inspirational","knowing-a-person","loyalty","secrets","sharing","sharing-secrets","soul"],"id":67372,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"If differences can be hidden, perhaps there aren't differences at all.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["differences","opinions","tolerance","truth"],"id":72988,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"But since the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan, terrorists have killed many times that number of people in Pakistan. Tens of thousands have died here in terror and counterterror violence, slain by bombs, bullets, cannons, and drones. America's 9/11 has given way to Pakistan's 24/7/365. The battlefield has been displaced. And in Pakistan it is much more bloody.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["9-11","middle-east","pakistan","pakistan-united-states-relations","politics","terrorism"],"id":83214,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"And with a last stardrop, a last circle, I arrive, and she's there, chemical wonder in her eyes.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["chemical","ecstasy","wonder"],"id":93465,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"},{"text":"Pride tells me to give it back, but common sense tells pride to shut up, have a joint and relax. I shrug and put the note into my wallet.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["common-sense","note","pride","wallet"],"id":106577,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":66,"pages":7,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}