Hanif Kureishi Quotes

I can't fly a flag for monogamy or whatever the opposite is; it depends on the person and on the situation.

Love comes in far more shapes and sizes than what the family-values crowd condones, of course.

I don't believe [monogamy] is realistic. But, I believe that we, as people, have the power to make it happen.

I don't know, monogamy is a weird thing for me.

I don't design houses with the nuclear family idea because I don't believe in it as a concept.

I have never wanted a family. I don't believe in marriage, though I obviously believe it should be legal for everyone who wants to do it. But it is not something I believe in, nor do the characters in my book, nor do any of my friends.

The fidelity question is difficult for me. Society has made us believe we're supposed to be monogamous when we're not killer whales, or whatever the monogamous species is.

I'm a modern girl, but you should put your husband first. I like to think divorce is not an option.

Liberals subscribe to the new flexible, pluralistic definition of the family; their defense of families carries no conviction.

Anything outside marriage seems like freedom and excitement.

I know people who try open relationships. People I really care about, they're fine with it. That's a personal decision.

I'll only move in with my husband. There's no question of a live-in relationship.

All my close friends are normal dudes and then I will hang out with some girl who is a musician and everyone thinks that's what it's all about.

I think our generation, my generation at least, has become much more comfortable with unconventional romantic relationships.

People have a lot less leniency for some reason for women straying from a relationship than they do for men.

Who's married and who isn't married. I have my standards but I shouldn't have to impose my standards on others. Other people have their standards and they have no right to impose their marriage standards on me.

It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.

Religion is so focused on family. These days, for many people, being gay is also focused on family.

You can love more than one person at a time, and I don't give a damn what the self-help books say.

Why do people care what I'm wearing or what I'm eating, and why are people looking down on me because I'm not wearing high heels? That's the downside to being in the public eye.

People are unbelievably giving and caring and understanding of me because of what I do for a living and because actors tend to get their asses kissed everywhere they go, so I can be extra-understanding in a relationship.

I don't believe in monogamy, possessing people, the rightness or inevitability of jealousy.

Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men.

In the gay world, [relationships] will always be open. There is no curbing the gay man.

I'm not like a politician that goes around talking about family values. And I can't get fired from being a funny person because I did something that most people are disapproving of. I think people are just obsessed with this morality that people perceive as being the right and wrong way of doing stuff.