My books have been published all over Europe. They read me there, and I want to read them back. I also spend a lot of time in Europe, often meeting writers, and I'm sick of apologizing for the embarrassing shortage of translations in America. Aleksandar Hemon More Quotes by Aleksandar Hemon More Quotes From Aleksandar Hemon Home is where somebody notices when you are no longer there. Aleksandar Hemon deep-thought understanding home I loved you because there was no other place for me to go. We were married because we did not know what else to do with each other. You never knew me, nothing about me, what died inside me, what lived invisibly. Aleksandar Hemon died i-loved-you married If you can't go home, there is nowhere to go, and nowhere is the biggest place in the world-indeed, nowhere is the world. Aleksandar Hemon nowhere-to-go home world I don't believe in inspiration. I write when I can't avoid writing anymore. Aleksandar Hemon inspiration writing believe One builds one's life in consistency; one invests it with the belief, however unsupported by reality, that one has always been what one is now, that even in one's distant past one could recognize the seed from which this doomed flower has bloomed. Aleksandar Hemon flower reality past The perfect borscht is what life should be but never is. Aleksandar Hemon borscht should perfect We knew - but didn't want to know - what was going to happen, the sky descending upon our heads like the shadow of a falling piano in a cartoon. Aleksandar Hemon piano sky fall I like the idea of a book being a democratic space which readers enter, carrying their own thoughts, and participate in a conversation, or experience of grace. Aleksandar Hemon space book ideas There are moments in life when it is all turned inside out--what is real becomes unreal, what is unreal becomes tangible, and all your levelheaded efforts to keep a tight ontological control are rendered silly and indulgent. Aleksandar Hemon effort real silly Belief and delusion are incestuous siblings. Aleksandar Hemon delusion sibling belief I much preferred winning to thinking and I didn't like losing at all. Aleksandar Hemon losing winning thinking Europe has never been a monolithic space, it contains a lot of people, a lot of languages and infinite supplies of history. I didn't need to do anything to showcase diversity. It is a condition of life and art in Europe, contained in every random sample. Aleksandar Hemon diversity people art I gradually became aware that my interiority was inseparable from my exteriority, that the geography of my city was the geography of my soul. Aleksandar Hemon geography soul cities When I look at my old pictures, all I can see is what I used to be but am no longer. I think: What I can see is what I am not. Aleksandar Hemon used looks thinking Lord, why did you leave me in these woods? Aleksandar Hemon leaving-me woods lord There has to be a kind of grassroots push, a movement, as it were, against the inherent isolationism of American capitalism as practiced in the publishing industry. There need to be grants and government support and a few publishers, mainstream and independent, who are not afraid to challenge American readership. We need to build a network of translators, publishers and readers. We hope that our annual anthology might provide an upsurge in interest for European fiction and then, as we publish it every year, become a habit to many readers. Aleksandar Hemon support independent challenges I've never meditated for a moment in my life. I don't know how it works. But one of the things you have to do to put yourself in the meditating mode is stop narrating yourself to yourself. Aleksandar Hemon meditating know-how moments I have two homes, like someone who leaves their hometown and/or parents and then establishes a life elsewhere. They might say that they're going home when they return to see old friends or parents, but then they go home as well when they go to where they live now. Sarajevo is home, Chicago is home. Aleksandar Hemon parent home two You don't want your neurosurgeon to have doubts about the meaning of it all while he or she is operating on your brain. Aleksandar Hemon neurosurgeons doubt brain The funny thing is that in Bosnia there are no words that are equivalent to fiction and nonfiction. From the storytelling point of view, the difference is artificial. Aleksandar Hemon funny-things differences views
