Inspirational Quotes by Hanif Kureishi (British Novelist, Screenwriter)

Inspirational Quotations by Hanif Kureishi (British Novelist, Screenwriter)

Hanif Kureishi (b.1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, and novelist of Pakistani and English descent whose works explore in graphic terms the experiences of British Asians. Controversial for his left-wing politics and his rigid views on literary production, he has also written short stories, criticism, and reviews.

Born in the London suburb of Bromley, Kureishi studied philosophy at Lancaster University and at King’s College, London, where he earned a B.A. in 1977. He became writer-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre in 1981 and won widespread recognition for his screenplay My Beautiful Launderette (1986,) a bittersweet portrayal of the Asian experience in Britain. It was followed by the screenplay Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1988) and the television play The Buddha of Suburbia (1993; originally written as a novel, 1990.)

Among Kureishi’s other works of fiction are Intimacy (1998,) Gabriel’s Gift (2001,) The Mother (2003,) and Venus (2006.) His memoir about his father, My Ear at His Heart, appeared in 2004.

Kureishi’s collection of short stories includes Love in a Blue Time (1997) and Midnight All Day (1999.) One of his stories was made into the film My Son the Fanatic (1998.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Hanif Kureishi

Why do people who are good at families have to be smug and assume it is the only way to live. … Why can’t they be blamed for being bad at promiscuity?
—Hanif Kureishi
Topics: Happiness

Without love, most of life remains concealed. Nothing is as fascinating as love, unfortunately.
—Hanif Kureishi

Love cannot be measured by its duration…
—Hanif Kureishi

Falling in love was simple; one had only to yield. Digesting another person, however, and sustaining love, was bloody work, and not a soft job.
—Hanif Kureishi

I don’t want to be loved. I want to be desired. Love is safety, but desire is foul.
—Hanif Kureishi

What a quality of innocence people have when they don’t expect to be harmed.
—Hanif Kureishi
Topics: Unity

Our lives can only be lived forward and understood backwards. Living a life and understanding it occupy different dimensions.
—Hanif Kureishi

Soon we will be strangers. No, we can never be that. Hurting someone is an act of reluctant intimacy. We will be dangerous acquaintances with a history.
—Hanif Kureishi

No amount of promises can guarantee love
—Hanif Kureishi

At the same time, you have to find the right distance between people. Too close, and they overwhelm you, too far and they abandon you. How to hold them in the right relation?
—Hanif Kureishi

At the deepest level people are madder than they want to believe. You will find that they fear being eaten, and are alarmed by their desire to devour others.
—Hanif Kureishi

If you never left anything or anyone there would be no room for the new. Naturally, to move on is an infidelity—to others, to the past, to old notions of oneself. Perhaps every day should contain at least one essential infidelity or necessary betrayal. It would be an optimistic, hopeful act, guaranteeing belief in the future—a declaration that things can be not only different but better.
—Hanif Kureishi

You don’t stop loving someone just because you hate them.
—Hanif Kureishi

Nothing can be repaired or advanced but only accepted
—Hanif Kureishi

How disturbing it is that our illusions are often our most important beliefs.
—Hanif Kureishi