Hisham Matar Quotes

I don't write for fame or money, I simply want to share my experiences.

I essentially write for myself.

I think I'm drawn to writing about something which feels intense and important.

I was always writing for myself. I wrote what I needed to write and hear - that's what makes it powerful.

I write as a way of keeping myself going. You build your life around writing, and it's what gets you through. So it's partly just curiosity to see what you can do.

I take photographs with love, so I try to make them art objects. But I make them for myself first and foremost - that is important.

I think that like all writers - and if any writer disagrees with this, then he is not a writer - I write primarily for myself.

Writing is far too hard work to say what someone else wants me to. Serving it as a craft, using it as a way of growing in my own understanding, seems to me to be a beautiful way to live. And if that product is shareable with other people, so much the better.

I don't necessarily intend to publish posthumously, but I do like to write for myself.

I know it's a cliché to say I write for myself, but I write for myself.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile... a stain upon the silence.

I write for myself. I don't write because I have a record coming out. I write because I want to. I need to.

Never regret what you don't write.

But this is neither here nor there why do I mention it? Ask my pen, it governs me, I govern not it.

I had become a film director because I thought I could express something in an artful way.

I don't write songs, play music and tour, really, for anyone else but myself. It's something that I have to do to stay alive.

I'm voraciously looking to express myself in my work. I love my work.

With writing, I can express myself, really, and share my ideas and just let my thoughts flow out.

I always write out of a need to read something, rather than a need to write something.

I think all writers are mainly writing for themselves because I believe that most writers are writing based on a need to write. But at the same time, I feel that writers are, of course, writing for their readers, too.

There are many people who say, 'I write for myself.' I think that if you write and publish, then you write for your readers, not just for yourself. Many writers say that they write to be loved. I place myself among those writers.

I didn't originally intend on writing a book. I started writing during the day to feel like I was accomplishing something creative.

I love writing. I feel more connected to that than I do a lot of the other things.

This isn't about the money. This is just for me. I love music.