For me as a writer, Albanian is simply an extraordinary means of expression - rich, malleable, adaptable. As I have said in my latest novel, 'Spiritus,' it has modalities that exist only in classical Greek, which puts one in touch with the mentality of antiquity.
Ismail Kadare
Related I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary... BILLY JOEL The reason I write is that I'm not in dialogue with my emotions; writing puts me in touch with m... ETGAR KERET 'Empathy' is the latest code word for liberal activism, for treating the Constitution as mal... KARL ROVE Great touch is often written off simply as 'talent,' which is crucial, because a good swing ... ARNOLD PALMER In antiquity, there were three regions in southern Europe: Greece, Rome, and Ilyria. Albanian is the... ISMAIL KADARE I feel that I'm a poet first. Not only was poetry the first genre in which I wrote, it's the... FLOYD SKLOOT To have the opportunity to lead the Solicitor General's office is the honor of a lifetime. As yo... ELENA KAGAN I was once a graduate student in Victorian literature, and I believe as the Victorian novelists did,... MARGARET ATWOOD I don't see anybody as either ordinary or extraordinary. I see them simply as people in front of... EVE ARNOLD I'm not the most talented writer in the world. I know that. But I also know that I'm discipl... DAVID B. COE Proust, my big inspiration for 'Goon Squad,' uses music a lot in his novel, both in terms of... JENNIFER EGAN In France we have a saying, 'Joie de vivre,' which actually doesn't exist in the English... MIREILLE GUILIANO My Writers Guild of America card is one of my proudest possessions. I was given it after being invit... JOJO MOYES I pretty much drink a cup of coffee, write in my journal for a while, and then sit at a computer in ... JESS WALTER It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used desc... HENRI MATISSE I'm very grateful for social media. I think it has shown people my true nature, and through that... LAURA BENANTI The one I tell everyone, the one I'm very, very proud of is 'Call Me Irresponsible.' Sim... SAMMY CAHN I have a slightly contrarian streak as a writer, and one of the things I was interested in was how d... JENNY OFFILL When I wrote my first serious novel, 'Interior', I was inspired by a 1978 book of Updike'... JUSTIN CARTWRIGHT More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't sa... JOHN IRVING As Alexander Hamilton said in 'The Federalist Papers,' law is about the exercise of judgment... EDWIN MEESE There is only one true aristocracy . . . and that is the aristocracy of passionate souls! TENNESSEE WILLIAMS This is too much reality for a Friday. AS GOOD AS IT GETS I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary. BILLY JOEL I wrote my first novel, 'Deadline,' in 1994 as an experiment. RANDY ALCORN The mere fact of my novel being filmed means very little to me. For a long while after 'The Crim... MICHEL FABER I've always said that I count myself as a classical crossover artist. To be so, you have to have... KATHERINE JENKINS I think that's one of the things that has always put me in kind of an odd niche. It's that a... DANNY ELFMAN I feel like 'Next To Me' is a great introduction because it's a simple song that has a s... EMELI SANDE There are many individuals, companies and even countries operating in what I call a 'me first... SIMON MAINWARING In the end, I think you really only get as far as you're allowed to get. GAYLE GARDNER The thing that I just discovered, which fascinates me really - my name, McCann, the translation isn&... RORY MCCANN I spend an extraordinary amount of time in my car, so I can justify the expense. That's the only... RACHEL NICHOLS I'm one of the most adaptable guys I know in as much as travelling is my favourite thing to do i... MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY Although I enjoyed writing Film Music it was always a means to an end, in that it enabled me to keep... MALCOLM ARNOLD For some extraordinary reason, the Church moves in an atmosphere of antiquity. I have no doubt that ... WILLIAM BARCLAY My family got all over me because they said Bush is only for the rich people. Then I reminded them, ... CHARLES BARKLEY I'm Marie Lightfoot, or at least that's the name my publisher puts on the covers of the book... NANCY PICKARD Food to me, in one word, is 'creativity' or 'expression.' It's simply, 'This... GRAHAM ELLIOT During my days as a soccer player, my teammates used to call me 'Touch' because I have a tou... CHAD LE CLOS I don't have a classical-music mentality. I haven't been taught that way, and it doesn't... AGNES OBEL Yes, I have two books that are about me: one of them I wrote, and the other one was written about me... EVE BUNTING I'm a third-culture child. It's an interesting concept. Having an American father, a South A... MARIE-CHANTAL CLAIRE Since I am first of all a character writer, that character's emotions are as vivid to me as my o... S. E. HINTON I've reread 'The Secret Garden' every year as an adult. I have a battered copy on my boo... ELLEN POTTER For many years, there has been only one place where I am in touch with my emotions fearlessly, and t... RICKY MARTIN the deceased don’t want you to forget about them. They just want you to move past it; not to dwell... JUSTIN PYFROM I'm in favour of religion as a tamer of arrogance. For a Greek Orthodox, the idea of God as crea... NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB A voice in my head tells me that I'm at the twilight of an extraordinary life. I say extraordina... CHARLES NELSON REILLY 'A Christmas Carol' is an extravagantly symbolic thing - as rich in symbols as Christmas pud... MICHEL FABER In India, I have been called a 'destroyer.' But that is only because they mixed my identity ... RAVI SHANKAR I feel like I've got a novel in me somewhere, but that's something... I was just talking to ... COREY TAYLOR I have seen poor people in rich countries & rich people in poor countries.This means our mentality c... DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) In my career as an actor, there is a catchphrase that Scofield always says often in regards to his b... WENTWORTH MILLER It's hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel's suc... ZUBIN MEHTA It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer. E. O. WILSON I don't see myself as an artist, as a writer. The sort of writing that I do, which is popular fi... FIONA MCINTOSH It is not important for me as a writer that you leave a piece of writing of mine with either an agre... BEN OKRI It puts the provider in a situation of looking for ways to have someone else pick up a piece of the ... DAVE OBEY Rereading one's own novels after many years is always a fraught business, but when a novel has f... HOWARD JACOBSON The hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. The touch of some hands is an impertinence. I h... HELEN KELLER I've had one experience of writer's block in my life, and it was living hell. It was a terro... ATHOL FUGARD Preparation is a mentality... With wrestling being my background, I've always learned to overwor... DOMINICK CRUZ I'm a character actor and I get lost in these characters, so I think it's only recently that... CARRIE PRESTON That whole heroic notion of the women warriors known as Amazons is extremely appealing. It was appea... ADRIENNE MAYOR In a novel, my feelings and sense of outrage can find a broader means of expression which would be m... ANTONIO TABUCCHI There is an old-fashioned distinction between the novel of character and the novel of incident, whic... HENRY JAMES I wanted to write a novel where the meaning is in the story and characters and the subliminal, in th... FRANK PERETTI It's an image that the media has given me as a bad girl, and the only reason they gave me that i... TONYA HARDING Anybody who knows me has said, 'I had a Denis O'Hare moment.' I suppose in the kindest i... DENIS O'HARE It is my great good luck the words I use are English words, which means I live in a very old nation ... GERALDINE BROOKS It takes one person to rewrite the history book. J.R. RIM Oh, boy. I'm still in touch with about 90 percent of my exes. They would describe me as being un... NATHAN FILLION If someone had told me in high school that one day I'd write an historical novel, I would have r... NANCY HORAN I want an ending that's satisfying. I'm more of a classical writer than a modernist one in t... JEFFREY EUGENIDES I never wanted to make a graphic novel. As soon as you become a 'writer,' you have to be int... MARJANE SATRAPI On the publicity tour of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' I was asked over and over again, if, as... NIA VARDALOS 'We Were the Mulvaneys' is perhaps the novel closest to my heart. I think of it as a valenti... JOYCE CAROL OATES I'm fine, but I'm bipolar. I'm on seven medications, and I take medication three times a... CARRIE FISHER I tell my students that with a 200-page novel, you are going to write 100 pages that don't make ... JOE MENO As a writer, I always think about who my prototype actors are, in my brain. It's helpful, as a w... CARLTON CUSE Every writer has written a spec. It's the first thing you write, and it basically stands as a me... TAYLOR SHERIDAN I don't even think of it as a strategy. It's me in my element; it's my forte. Me being w... STORMZY It's not that I bounce ideas off of my children as much as it is that having children has had a ... JULIANNA BAGGOTT When I began work on my first book, 'The River of Doubt,' which tells the story of Theodore ... CANDICE MILLARD When I write, I feel that I'm writing with my intellect. When I paint, I think it's some oth... ORHAN PAMUK Words are so often used in the opposite sense, as a screen of diversion. It's the struggle towar... JOHN BERGER Mental illness, of course, is not literally a 'thing' - or physical object - and hence it ca... THOMAS SZASZ They always say, 'Time heals.' But it really doesn't. You just get used to it. I live li... PARIS-MICHAEL KATHERINE JACKSON A novel in which the reader will ask many questions concerning Mayan antiquity. PETER J. WETZELAER I come from a council estate in Tower Hamlets, and by no means am I the only person who has done wel... EDDIE MARSAN As a writer, one of the things we all learned from the movies was a kind of compression that didn... SALMAN RUSHDIE Certainly, we can no longer look upon the canon of Western art - Greco-Roman as revived, extended, a... WILLIAM BARRETT Short Brief Story, How I started to make this which you see today? I'm talking about the works... DEYTH BANGER Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: 'War is b... IMMANUEL KANT I exist only as a whole; my only claim is to be natural, and the pleasure I feel in an action, I tak... ANDRé GIDE 'Made it as a writer'? I'm still wondering if I've made it as a writer. I've mad... ERIC BROWN I'm really not interested in acting as a facade, I'm interested in it as an emotional expres... BRIE LARSON When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a c... ERNEST HEMINGWAY As a matter of fact is an expression that precedes many an expression that isn't. LAURENCE J. PETER
More Ismail Kadare
Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible... The writer is the natural enemy of dictato... ISMAIL KADARE Having spent the greater part of my life under a Communist dictatorship, I am very familiar with the... ISMAIL KADARE In general, literature is a natural adversary of totalitarianism. Tyrannical governments all view li... ISMAIL KADARE We cannot deny that 80 or even 90 percent of the spiritual treasures from the past 3,000 years have ... ISMAIL KADARE For a writer, personal freedom is not so important. It is not individual freedom that guarantees the... ISMAIL KADARE If I manage to write something that I consider good and valuable in a particular place, that spot au... ISMAIL KADARE For a writer, New York works well. Literary work is very elitist. I worked two hours a day, maximum,... ISMAIL KADARE Guidebooks used to write the name of my city in two ways: Gjirokaster in Albanian, and Argyrokastron... ISMAIL KADARE In antiquity, there were three regions in southern Europe: Greece, Rome, and Ilyria. Albanian is the... ISMAIL KADARE The founding father of Albanian literature is the nineteenth-century writer Naim Frasheri. Without h... ISMAIL KADARE I consider I've had a good day when, among the lines I've written, I've produced from my... ISMAIL KADARE They said 'ski', but they heard 'vodka'! ISMAIL KADARE The great universal literature has always had a tragic relation with freedom. The Greeks renounced a... ISMAIL KADARE Doesn't the world see the suffering of millions of Palestinians who have been living in exile ar... ISMAIL HANIYEH Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as time go... ISMAIL HANIYEH To be adjusted in changing situation is smartness ISMAIL HOSSAIN The family took it rather hard, they were very upset. AZIZAH ISMAIL I sometimes think about Mahatma Gandhi: when he was arrested...the movement continued. That is what ... AZIZAH ISMAIL Unfortunately the police acted wildly. This is another truth how the police have lost their sense of... AZIZAH ISMAIL If Dr. Mahathir thinks that by ordering the police to act like gangsters he will frighten the people... AZIZAH ISMAIL We've been trained to hope that a struggle requires sacrifice. Our family is sad. My children are de... AZIZAH ISMAIL In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Pal... ISMAIL HANIYEH Tens of thousands have been killed or wounded by the Israeli army since 1967. During 2006, the numbe... ISMAIL HANIYEH Today three-quarters of the Palestinian people are displaced: there are 5 million Palestinian refuge... ISMAIL HANIYEH We will talk about several issues including the shape of the political partnership in the coming sta... ISMAIL HANIYEH [Her husband, violinist Sanford Allen, rehearses Bach on his Stradivarius next door, for a recital u... ISMAIL MERCHANT There is nothing defined, but all that we have heard from the Arab and Islamic states, officially an... ISMAIL HANIYEH A lot of people have been, like, 'the university shouldn't be able to (stop free speech),' and they ... HUSSAIN ISMAIL The mixture of the Trinidadian people and the Indian people has caused a new culture to emerge. ISMAIL MERCHANT We promise you that we will not cede a single part of Palestine, we will not cede Jerusalem, we will... ISMAIL HANIYEH When they attacked my village they were shouting 'you are all rebels' - but we don't have any links ... SULEIMAN ISMAIL The occupier's retreat from Gaza and northern West Bank is a result of resistance. ISMAIL HANIYYE The sector is meandering sideways. JOE ISMAIL We are a free people. We've had democratic elections. ISMAIL HANIYEH The victory of Hamas is not only based on the corruption of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas has a v... ISMAIL HANIYEH The Europeans and Americans have said the martyrdom operations are why Hamas has been put on the ter... ISMAIL HANIYEH Urdu can not die out because it has very strong roots in Persia. The language itself is not only jus... ISMAIL MERCHANT We were elected on a different political agenda. ISMAIL HANIYEH We came to say, the Quran is our constitution, we are committed to God and his holy book. God willin... ISMAIL HANIYEH We confirm to you this income will be used to pay the salaries of [government] employees and fund da... ISMAIL HANIYEH We call on you to transfer all aid to the Palestinian treasury. We assure you that all the revenues ... ISMAIL HANIYEH We agreed to hold a meeting as soon as he arrives in Gaza, in about two days time. ISMAIL HANIYEH There is no winner and loser here. The elections are just the first step on the way to building a Pa... ISMAIL HANIYEH This is a victory of the Palestinian people who voted against the occupation (by Israel in the West ... ISMAIL HANIYEH These weapons liberated the land and by these weapons, we will continue the liberation process. ISMAIL HANIYEH We will resolve these matters through dialogue when we are in government. All I can say is no police... ISMAIL HANIYEH We will deal with this difference in the political position through dialogue and understanding, to p... ISMAIL HANIYEH When the Israeli leaders launched their expansionist war in June 1967 they never envisaged that 40 y... ISMAIL HANIYEH Samantha is such an unselfish player. That's what makes a good player great — making everyone arou... HOLLY ISMAIL Whoever defames our prophet should be executed. Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up. ISMAIL HASSAN Whoever defames our prophet should be executed. Bin Laden, our beloved, Denmark must be blown up. ISMAIL HASSAN We seek to assure investors on the Palestinian bourse that we regard it as one of the fundamental ba... ISMAIL HANIYEH Every Palestinian family feels the effects of the international embargo. But the more the pressure o... ISMAIL HANIYEH These Israeli decisions are part of the policy of repression, terrorism and collective punishment ag... ISMAIL HANIYA We call on you to understand the priorities of our Palestinian people at this stage and continue the... ISMAIL HANIYEH Does someone believe that we can use guns to destroy a state that has F-16s and 200 nuclear warheads... ISMAIL HANIYA The U.S. administration and European countries should put pressure ... on the occupier and not the o... ISMAIL HANIYEH We call on you to transfer all aid to the Palestinian treasury. ISMAIL HANIYEH We have gotten some terrible reviews at times but if we depended on the judgment of the studios or c... ISMAIL MERCHANT I don't know why Abbas canceled the visit, but I hope he will arrive here soon. ISMAIL HANIYEH These decisions were hasty and unjust. ISMAIL HANIYA Clearly the aim of this escalation is to force the people to kneel down. The government is able to f... ISMAIL HANIYA A few words of Hindi appear here or there, but it's all Urdu. I feel that if the popular culture... ISMAIL MERCHANT I hope that Americans will give careful and well-informed thought to root causes and historical real... ISMAIL HANIYEH We don't have a state, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank. Gaza is under siege and the West Ba... ISMAIL HANIYEH The liberals and free people of the world will not like to see the Palestinian people living under s... ISMAIL HANIYEH I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving... ISMAIL HANIYEH The prison authorities said he is not allowed to send written papers outside the prison anymore. The... GAMEELA ISMAIL It's the same old stubborn regime playing the same old tricks. This is a police state and they don't... GAMEELA ISMAIL We have lots of complaints. People who come to vote here fear if they do the wrong thing, their sons... GAMEELA ISMAIL Down with (Egyptian President) Hosni Mubarak. GAMILA ISMAIL All this climate of terror give us a clear indication of the kind of sentence that Nur will receive. GAMILA ISMAIL Nobody will ever accept any withdrawal from what we have achieved. GAMILA ISMAIL قاطع انتخابات الرئاسة المصرية من أجل أن تنقذ احمد شفيق ... AHMED ISMAIL When she takes it strong to the basket, she can score on anybody at anytime. HOLLY ISMAIL It has been such a joy to work with her. When anyone says anything about Sam, I just smile inside. S... HOLLY ISMAIL Samantha is such an unselfish player. That's what makes a good player great making everyone aroun... HOLLY ISMAIL Sam has been phenomenal for us. She's an all-around great player. HOLLY ISMAIL Everybody thought they would run all over us, but I knew we could run with them. It just came down t... HOLLY ISMAIL Samantha was phenomenal. She's done everything for us all year, and I'm really proud of her effort. HOLLY ISMAIL In the beginning, we played nervous. I don't think we ever got in a groove. HOLLY ISMAIL The cartoons have showed us that they had tried to provoke anger by Muslims. ISMAIL YUSANTO This is great. The Palestinians have spoken and they want someone to continue the struggle against I... ISMAIL YUSANTO For more than 50 years of independence, we have seen secularist leaders destroy the country. ISMAIL YUSANTO For more than 50 year's of independence, we have seen secularist leaders destroy the country. ISMAIL YUSANTO Whoever defames our prophet should be executed. ISMAIL HASSAN We assure you that if we win, we will be at your service. ISMAIL HANIYAH We call on you to continue moral and financial support, and to direct all aid to the Palestinian tre... ISMAIL HANIYAH We assure that this money will be spent on employee salaries and day-to-day needs. ISMAIL HANIYAH The US administration and European countries should put pressure ... on the occupier and not the occ... ISMAIL HANIYA It's for the international community to put strong pressure on Israel to restore our rights and end ... ISMAIL HANIYA We are going to meet in the next few days to discuss the nature of our political partnership and a n... ISMAIL HANIYA The Israeli occupiers should recognize Palestinian rights first. ISMAIL HANIYA We will put the Palestinian house in order. ISMAIL HANIYA I call on the American administration to respect ... the will of the Palestinian people and the resu... ISMAIL HANIYA This is a historic day for Palestinians -- this is a great day. ISMAIL HANIYA It is a list for change and reform, composed of candidates from a new generation, our historic leade... ISMAIL HANIYA We will not rest until we liberate all Palestinian land, crowned by Jerusalem. ISMAIL HANIYA We are optimistic that our people will go to vote in this historical event. ISMAIL HANIYA This withdrawal from Gaza should be a real, comprehensive one, from the air, sea and our borders. Th... ISMAIL HANIEH The liberation of the Gaza Strip is not the end of the road to comprehensive liberation. We will not... ISMAIL HANIEH We will not rest until we liberate all Palestinian land, crowned by Jerusalem. ISMAIL HANIEH But our security forces have prevented the incidents from becoming bigger by behaving sensibly. Noth... ISMAIL CALISKAN I think we had a great response to the concert. Not just from the students but from labels, producer... HUSSAIN ISMAIL Thanks to God and the efforts of the working team, we succeeded to overcome these difficulties, and ... HUSAIN ISMAIL In addition, we have external auditors. The most important technologies applied to improve the refin... HUSAIN ISMAIL Every time we have about three days of downtrend, you get one or two days of positive moves in the s... JOE ISMAIL We have a good short-term bounce here, but until we retest the 12,080 mark, we may see a bit of prof... JOE ISMAIL Since gold prices are stuck in that range, gold-mining stocks are not going to move very much either... JOE ISMAIL Gold is not quite ready yet to move in the upward bias. JOE ISMAIL As the week progresses, we might see a bit of short-term strength with window-dressing before the en... JOE ISMAIL Any corrective phase that will come in the near term could be a shallow one. JOE ISMAIL We've had a lackluster market in the past several days, so we might see the market at least get a gr... JOE ISMAIL We will have carry through from yesterday. But after three days of strong gains, I think it will pro... JOE ISMAIL Crude prices remain volatile and that is where the Canadian market will carry on from yesterday's ga... JOE ISMAIL Energy, as usual, it's carrying on forward. JOE ISMAIL Anybody who asks for democracy to be introduced should respect the results of democracy. ISMAIL HANIYEH abundant feeling of your presence in front of Allah is enjoy full solitude state where you are in bo... M. ISMAIL SHAIKH Choose to stand higher then the clouds. Shoot for the moon and even if you miss you'll land amongs t... AMEER MOHAMMED ISMAIL Love might not always take you to your hights. But to stand out to something that's more than you. C... AMEER MOHAMMED ISMAIL It's started. All of the vents are open. ISMAIL ABDEL VETAH Don't frame up all your emotions. Like a house without any windows it becomes depression, live to wa... AMEER MOHAMMED ISMAIL This is your road. Some people may walk it with you, but no one will walk it for you. AMEER MOHAMMED ISMAIL The 24th (of February) is the deadline. ISMAIL ABDEL VETAH We still have almost three months to try to find an amicable solution, otherwise it will be the Inte... ISMAIL ABDEL VETAH By 2007 the Chinese plan to have wells in this zone. They'll probably be the first. ISMAIL ABDEL VETAH Muslim children should be raised with the understanding that once they hit puberty they are adults a... ABU MUAWIYAH ISMAIL KAMDAR