FastSaying

Whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative.


Rabih Alameddine

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I am an extremely private person. I always feel that I come across as a caricature of myself wheneve...
MIA KIRSHNER I have a following. Whenever I am on tour they come. It is always sold out.
NINA HAGEN I don't know if I have a favorite color.
KATE MIDDLETON It's very special having a new little girl.
KATE MIDDLETON He's someone who's perfectly fluent in English, in Urdu, in Arabic,
EVAN KOHLMANN My identity comprises of more than just my faith. I am a proud Muslim, but I am also a liberal, a Br...
MAAJID NAWAZ I actually speak fluent English and Spanish and... I dabble in a couple of languages, but I'm no...
COTE DE PABLO It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you're properly trained.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II Like all best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater ...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II It is easy enough to define what the Commonwealth is not. Indeed this is quite a popular pastime.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have to be seen to be believed.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughou...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana's loss, ...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have behind me not only the splendid traditions and the annals of more than a thousand years but t...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in th...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass; it is almost exactly 13 years since ...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something e...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts an...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II Grief is the price we pay for love.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its ...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It is a nobl...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II At Christmas, I am always struck by how the spirit of togetherness lies also at the heart of the Chr...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II For many, Christmas is also a time for coming together. But for others, service will come first.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses w...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your s...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are g...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the man...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II These wretched babies don't come until they are ready.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of ...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II The events that I have attended to mark my Diamond Jubilee have been a humbling experience. It has t...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace ...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have been aware all the time that my peoples, spread far and wide throughout every continent and o...
QUEEN ELIZABETH II English is one of the most talented and gifted athletes I have ever come across in 20-plus years. Yo...
JEFF SCOTT I didn't come up here expecting to play. I am not really surprised. It's just whenever they need me....
RYAN ZIMMERMAN Four-word story of failure: Hired, tired, mired, fired.
UNKNOWN A quote isn't a quote until that quote is quotably quoted by and official Quotesman
I AM TIMEPIECE The internet has too much information out there for you to ask a dumb question
I AM TIMEPIECE I am no longer a rare breed, I am an endangered species
I AM TIMEPIECE I wish there was an edit button on Life because sometimes we don't realize the mistakes we've made u...
I AM TIMEPIECE Life are full of memories, capture them
I AM TIMEPIECE I don't fit in because I was born to stand out
I AM TIMEPIECE I write in reverse: Rather than come up with a narrative and write jokes for that narrative, I write...
JEFF KINNEY If I were to pray in Arabic, I'd pray to Allah. If I were to pray in English, I'd pray to Go...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE We'll sort of get over the marriage first and then maybe look at the kids. But obviously we want...
PRINCE WILLIAM Family is the most important thing in the world.
PRINCESS DIANA You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I ...
CATHERINE THE GREAT With the right help, children have a good chance of overcoming their issues while they are still you...
KATE MIDDLETON As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
KING SOLOMON I don't mind a big fascinator. I think there is more scope for artwork in a fascinator rather th...
ZARA PHILLIPS I was always told from the hat-makers that you should have your hair up because it shows the hat mor...
ZARA PHILLIPS I don't think I'll still be riding at 40. There are a couple of people who are still riding ...
ZARA PHILLIPS My dad's not a big talker.
ZARA PHILLIPS My dad can be pretty critical sometimes.
ZARA PHILLIPS I'd love to have kids, but not at the moment.
ZARA PHILLIPS You cannot make horses 'safe.'
ZARA PHILLIPS Virtually everything that gets printed about me is wrong anyway, so it doesn't really matter wha...
ZARA PHILLIPS It's stupid to say that I don't like being in the public eye, but I don't like doing stu...
ZARA PHILLIPS I'm an affectionate person.
ZARA PHILLIPS People still text me to say that there is something about me in the paper, and what really annoys me...
ZARA PHILLIPS Sometimes people will come up in the street and say: 'My daughter loves you, will you sign an au...
ZARA PHILLIPS Taking part in an Olympics on home ground is something you dream about.
ZARA PHILLIPS My brother and I have been able to get on and have been very lucky to do things with our family that...
ZARA PHILLIPS I don't think about the media.
ZARA PHILLIPS I love the sport and being competitive.
ZARA PHILLIPS The horses are all characters, all personalities. Some you get along with, some you don't, some ...
ZARA PHILLIPS I hate having my picture taken.
ZARA PHILLIPS Unfortunately in sport it's either good or bad. You've got to take the highs and the lows.
ZARA PHILLIPS My mother is massively into sailing, so we always had Musto clothes, and it went on from there, real...
ZARA PHILLIPS The senior members of the royal family work very hard and I don't think people quite realise tha...
ZARA PHILLIPS In our sport you're very lucky to find a horse of a lifetime and I found mine relatively early. ...
ZARA PHILLIPS I don't have a stylist, and I do most of my shopping online, just because it's easier. I don...
ZARA PHILLIPS I think Facebook's dangerous. So many people I know get into trouble with Facebook... I'd ra...
ZARA PHILLIPS I'm not a princess anyway so I find that quite weird to be labelled as one.
ZARA PHILLIPS Smoking is hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs.
KING JAMES I My dear mamma is quite right when she says that we must lay down principles and not depart from them...
MARIE ANTOINETTE I never make a trip to the United States without visiting a supermarket. To me they are more fascina...
WALLIS SIMPSON PS: It's all gossip about the prince. I'm not in the habit of taking my girlfriends' bea...
WALLIS SIMPSON I am so anxious for you not to abdicate and I think the fact that you do is going to put me in the w...
WALLIS SIMPSON I hate this place. I shall hate it to my grave.
WALLIS SIMPSON I look a hundred and weigh 110 - you won't love me when you see the wreck England has made me.
WALLIS SIMPSON A woman's life can really be a succession of lives, each revolving around some emotionally compe...
WALLIS SIMPSON Never explain, never complain.
WALLIS SIMPSON You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance.
WALLIS SIMPSON I have always had the courage for the new things that life sometimes offers.
WALLIS SIMPSON For a gallant spirit there can never be defeat.
WALLIS SIMPSON Forgive me for not writing but this man is exhausting.
WALLIS SIMPSON You can never be too rich or too thin.
WALLIS SIMPSON A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
KING SOLOMON It seems to me that man is made to act rather than to know: the principles of things escape our most...
FREDERICK THE GREAT Addiction is a hugely complex and destructive disease, and its impact can be simply devastating. All...
KATE MIDDLETON There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.
MARIE ANTOINETTE I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all.
MARIE ANTOINETTE I think change needs to be egoless. It's not about my leaving my fingerprints or a legacy. It...
QUEEN RANIA OF JORDAN

More Rabih Alameddine

When I was younger, I used to find stories about divas charming. Not much anymore.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I jokingly say if there was one great thing about, you know, the Lebanese Civil War was that it forc...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE We seem, particularly over here in the West and in America in particular, to have forgotten that we ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I can easily hold two opposing beliefs at the same time without any problem, which I find - well, mi...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE Before prognostication, a disclaimer: I have never been able to pick a winner. Not that it has ever ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, spanned four World Cups. It would have been a more symmetrical fi...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE If you want to know whether soccer is big in America, pick a weekend, go to any park in the land, an...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE All living languages are promiscuous. We promiscuous speakers shamelessly shoplift words, plucking b...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I read Shakespeare when I was 14 because it's what we were taught.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE A player should be disparaged if he gives less than his all, if he doesn't give 100%, no matter ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I loved problems on paper, and I was good at math, but I was a mechanical engineer, and I never unde...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I oscillate between being cynical and being naive on a regular basis. I always think that not much s...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE There are over 1 million refugees in Lebanon, a country of 4 million people. How do we solve that? I...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE A soccer game is a Wagner opera. The narrative sets up, the tension builds, the music ebbs and flows...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE My father and I rarely saw eye to eye when I was growing up. We saw the world differently. It was on...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE Now I love hoops. I'm a diehard UCLA fan, have been since my freshman year. But basketball is th...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE In Lebanon, there are completely different opinions and values in one country in terms of religion, ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE Close friends consider me a literary snob.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE 'Harat' is actually - it's a Lebanese dialect word. It comes from 'the mapmaker,'...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I wonder if being sane means disregarding the chaos that is life, pretending only an infinitesimal s...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE In 1982, Algeria made their first appearance at the World Cup. I believe it was the first Arab count...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I allegedly am an outsider writer, so I write from the perspective of somebody who doesn't compl...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE If I were to pray in Arabic, I'd pray to Allah. If I were to pray in English, I'd pray to Go...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I always say show me a storyteller who doesn't embellish, and I'll show you a bad one.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE In 1975, I left the burning city of Beirut for the quiet insanity of England. To say that short, fra...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE A phoenix, Beirut seems to always pull itself out its ashes, reinvents itself, has been conquered nu...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE My father loved Brazilian football, a diehard follower, so of course, he hated Germany and always ro...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I get upset about what is taken as great literature and what is cute and exotic.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE Me? I was lost for long time. I didn’t make any friends for few years. You can say I made friends ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE ...What happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what hap...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I also understand that you have to lie to yourself to survive in a bad marriage, you have to delude ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I wonder whether there is such a thing as a sense of individuality. Is it all a facade, covering a d...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE When the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, I was 15. I was shipped to boarding school in England a...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE ...I wondered at times whether I would wake up and this would be just a bad dream, a nightmare that ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE I believe one has to escape oneself to discover oneself.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE By nature, a storyteller is a plagiarist. Everything one comes across—each incident, book, novel, ...
RABIH ALAMEDDINE In order to live, I have to blind myself to my infinitesimal dimensions in this infinite universe.
RABIH ALAMEDDINE