Hanif Kureishi Quotes

I don't believe in saying no.

[My favorite word?] "Yes."

I wish to be at any time hereafter only a yea-sayer!

That's what life is: an open door to all that is possible. And that's a powerful thing.

I hope, after I'm gone, there will still be a Yes.

Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the furthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness: a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say 'no.' But saying 'yes' begins things. Saying 'yes' is how things grow.

Aye.

Let's say, Yes, to kids who say, No.

There are no doors that we cannot unlock.

Every wall is a door.

Once you believe things are permanent, you're trapped in a world without doors.

Anything and everything is possible.

I think that when you're open, you're at your most powerful.

I think wherever we are, we can create an atmosphere of openness and trust, where women and those who feel marginalized feel safe to speak the truth of their lives.

You want me to give her a key?" the guy asked. "I want you to give her a possibility," she told him, looking at my necklace again. "And that's what a key represents. An open door, a chance. You know?

If you over-plan, you close the door on possibilities.

The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.

But far, oh, far as passionate eye can reach, And long, ah, long as rapturous eye can cling, The world is mine: blue hill, still silver lake, Broad field, bright flower, and the long white road A gateless garden, and an open path: My feet to follow, and my heart to hold.

You dare your Yes - and experience a meaning...You repeat your Yes - and all things acquire a meaning...When everything has a meaning, how can you live anything but a YES.

I'm no longer quite sure what the question is, but I do know that the answer is Yes.

I think it's not a question of why, more a question of why not.

The map of America is a map of endlessness, of opening out, of forever and ever. No man's face would make you think of it but his hope might, his courage might.

When we show people that something is possible that they didn't think was possible it does more than just change things. It changes the way people think about the possibility of things changing. It helps them see that life is not the same day-after day, unsurprising, unending drudgery that so much of life teaches them that it is. And that is a huge contribution to their humanity.

Find a way to say yes to things.

What could you accomplish if no one told you it was impossible?