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Héctor Abad | First Sentence

Héctor Abad

‘Ever since this happened to me, I haven’t really believed in free will.’

A Rationalist in the Jungle

Héctor Abad

‘A pale-faced, near-sighted urbanite like me is nothing less than handicapped in the heart of the jungle.’

Hush . . . Hush Sweet Charlotte

Kazushige Abe

‘The crucial thing was to cool the baby off, bring the fever down.’

Road to Chitral

Azhar Abidi

‘I wonder sometimes when this cycle of violence began. When was year zero?’

Furniture of Desire

Walter Abish

‘It took him only a moment to eliminate all doubt. The opportunity was ripe.’

But Why Write? The Writer-To-Be

Walter Abish

‘How to explain this resolve to write, this firm unwavering intent to become a writer on the part of someone who may not even really care for books?’

Sweet Truth

Walter Abish

‘I believe in the harmony of my friendship to Gisela rather than in the binding force that the institution of marriage is said to represent.’

The Comrades and I

Mona Abouissa

Mona Abouissa on her experiences with Egyptian communists, and the role they played in Egypt before 1952, when they were excised from official history.

Fork in the Road

Leila Aboulela

‘I left Sudan in 1987 – I was 23 years old and the idea of writing was the furthest thing from my mind.’

Missing Out

Leila Aboulela

‘She had held the day up with pegs; not only her day but his too.’

In Freud’s Shadow

André Aciman

‘We all have ways of placing markers on our lives.’

Abingdon Square

André Aciman

‘Your problem is not that you misread signs; it’s that you see them everywhere.’

Fantastic Mr Fox

Tim Adams

‘He told the police officer that he was a vegan and the next morning a little slit in the prison door opened, with his breakfast: a metal tray on which there were three frozen potatoes.’ Tim Adams on the fox hunting ban in Granta 90: Country Life.

The Most Common State of Matter

Cara Blue Adams

‘She was quietly awed by her own panic.’