Literary Birthday – 23 July – Mohsin Hamid

Happy Birthday, Mohsin Hamid, born 23 July 1971.

Quotes

1. Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.
2. The beautiful thing about writing is that it’s a global community and on your bookshelf are all the teachers you could possibly want.
3. I spend a long time on books because I’m trying to figure out how to write them as I go along.
4. I write my first few drafts from scratch every time, incorporating elements from memory, and drafts can be so different as to be almost different novels.
5. What shocks me about America, about the way America is headed, is that in some ways it’s becoming increasingly Pakistan-like.
6. In today’s world, where people are watching TV, they are on Twitter, and they are absorbing lots of different types of things, we need new kinds of novels. That’s what I’m trying to do.

Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and Exit West. His writing has been featured on bestseller lists, adapted for the cinema, twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, selected as winner or finalist of more than twenty-five awards, and translated into more than 35 languages.

Source for image: Author’s website, photo credit Ed Kashi. Source for quotes.

by Amanda Patterson

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