Rabih Alameddine

“I get upset about what is taken as great literature and what is cute and exotic.”

“In Lebanon, there are completely different opinions and values in one country in terms of religion, modernity, tradition, East and West - which allows for a kind of intellectual development not available anywhere else.”

“'Harat' is actually - it's a Lebanese dialect word. It comes from 'the mapmaker,' somebody who makes a map. And it basically means somebody who tells fibs or exaggerate tales a little bit.”

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

“All living languages are promiscuous. We promiscuous speakers shamelessly shoplift words, plucking bons mots and phrases from any tempting language. We wear these words when we wish to be more formal, more elegant, more mysterious, worldly, precise, vague.”

“I always say show me a storyteller who doesn't embellish, and I'll show you a bad one.”