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It was necessary to write of the persecutions and cruelties which the self-congratulations of our rulers sought to wipe from our memory.

— Abdulrazak Gurnah Nobel Lecture and Interview (2021)

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Memory

More quotes by Abdulrazak Gurnah

I learned to have pleasure in reading simply because I love stories.

Nobel Lecture and Interview (2021)

Our histories were partial, silent about many cruelties.

Nobel Lecture and Interview (2021)

Now, Britain has seen those despised people become fellow citizens and has learnt tolerance and discrimination in public dealings with them. In this respect, it is a more generous society than the one I first met 30 years ago.

Fear and loathing (2001)

I think the best moment in writing is when you think, yep, I think it’s done…Writing is best when it’s complete, when it’s finished .

Nobel Lecture and Interview (2021)

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Women and elephants never forget an injury.

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Man should possess an infinite appetite for life. It should be self-evident to him, all the time, that life is superb, glorious, endlessly rich, infinitely desirable.

Colin Wilson The Philosopher's Stone (1969)

To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.

Thomas Campbell

In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important a function as recollecting.

William James The Principles of Psychology (1890)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Abdulrazak Gurnah (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.