376 Quotes by André Aciman

'Almost' is all about gradations and nuance and about suggestion and shades. Not quite a red wine, but not crimson, not purple either, or maroon; come to think of it, 'almost' Bordeaux.

In Alexandria, my birthplace and my home, all streets bearing Jewish names have been renamed.

Marseilles, Barcelona, Trieste, Istanbul - each romances the Mediterranean in its own fashion, mostly by embracing the sea in sweeping C-shaped bays that date back to antiquity.

My family were finally kicked out of Egypt in 1965 for being Jewish. We managed to remain longer than most.

Under Nasser, Egyptian nationalism was built on little more than pan-Arab irredentism and anti-Western and anti-Israeli sentiment. Mr. Mubarak retained these powerful brainwashers and allowed the rise of a religious component to further alienate Egyptians from liberal and democratic thinking.

There are many things about my life that I wish had been different and that I still find difficult to live down.

A hidden nerve is what every writer is ultimately about. It's what all writers wish to uncover when writing about themselves in this age of the personal memoir. And yet it's also the first thing every writer learns to sidestep, to disguise, as though this nerve were a deep and shameful secret that needs to be swathed in many sheaths.

The first thing a writer needs to know is what kind of writer he/she is.

Am I the only person who wishes he could escape his own life for a few hours?