Rabih Alameddine Quotes

In the summer of 1988, my father took me up to look at the remains of our home, the dream house that he'd built. It was my first time since our family left four years earlier. Political and obscene graffiti covered the half-torn walls. There was no ceiling and surprisingly no floor: the parquet, the stone, the marble, all looted.
I've never had a problem finding a team, a league, or a pickup game. Actually, I'm not sure I want soccer to get bigger. We have so many teams in San Francisco that there aren't enough fields.
Language, after all, is organic. You can't force words into existence. You can't force new meanings into words. And some words can't or won't or shouldn't be laundered or neutered. Language develops naturally.
My father and I rarely saw eye to eye when I was growing up. We saw the world differently. It was only when we were both adults that we were able to share spectacles. However, football, and particularly the World Cup, was when we, enemy combatants, could traverse trenches and be together.
My father loved Brazilian football, a diehard follower, so of course, he hated Germany and always rooted against them, always.
No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism.
Nobody ever calls me a soccer-playing writer, even though I play soccer and it's part of who I am.
Nobody ever said I'm a simple personality.
Now I love hoops. I'm a diehard UCLA fan, have been since my freshman year. But basketball is the '1812 Overture.' Pomp and circumstance, fireworks and cannons, lots and lots of fun, and in the end, still Tchaikovsky.
One of the things I enjoy most during the World Cup is watching a team improve, mature, and gel during the course of the tournament.
Soccer is the most widely played sport in the U.S.
The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, spanned four World Cups. It would have been a more symmetrical five had the Lebanese begun in 1974, but you know, we're Mediterranean, and timing isn't our forte.
The reasons why a player is better on one club than on another are many. I certainly am not an expert and can't explain.
The relationship between France and its 'foreign' players - blacks and North African Arabs - has always been troubled, particularly with Algerians.
There are over 1 million refugees in Lebanon, a country of 4 million people. How do we solve that? I have no idea. What's going on, I really don't know.
We seem, particularly over here in the West and in America in particular, to have forgotten that we are, in large measures, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.
When I was younger, I used to find stories about divas charming. Not much anymore.
When I wrote my first book, 'Koolaids,' I felt rejected and not wanted.
When the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, I was 15. I was shipped to boarding school in England and, after that, to UCLA.
Whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative.
«first‹previous123
Total Records : 60

Related Books

Author Profile

Votes :
Rating :
AuthorName
Rabih Alameddine
Profession
Artist
Country
Lebanon
View Profile

Share to your friends..

Related Author

Rabih Alameddine
view more

Popular Topics

Attitude Death Inspirational Life Love Motivational Nature Positive