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Dinaw Mengestu Quotes


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Quotes by Dinaw Mengestu

Showing 11-20 of 28 Quotes by Dinaw Mengestu

Peoria is such a seemingly quintessential American city, and I had always wanted to draw on that in either my fiction or in nonfiction. The Midwest is also a landscape that I have always been infatuated with, perhaps because it's the first one I can truly remember.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Also Always American Because Been City Draw Either Fiction First First One Had Landscape Midwest Nonfiction Perhaps Quintessential Remember Seemingly Truly Wanted I Can

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The MFA program did one great thing for me: It taught me how to be a better reader and critic. Nothing I wrote during my time at Columbia remains - but learning how to really deconstruct a work of fiction - that, of course, is a permanent part of me now.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Better Columbia Course Critic Did Fiction Great Great Thing How Learning Me My Time Nothing Now Part Permanent Program Reader Really Remains Taught Thing Time Work Wrote

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The fact that I have always been deeply invested in politics, and African politics in particular, inevitably played a role in my first novel and, of course, in my decision to write about a handful of particular conflicts in Africa as a journalist.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: About Africa African Always Been Conflicts Course Decision Deeply Fact First Handful Inevitably Invested Journalist Novel Particular Played Politics Role Write

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'The Duino Elegies' are notoriously cryptic, and part of the reason why I have always loved them is because they invite multiple readings over the course of a lifetime.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Always Because Course Invite Lifetime Loved Multiple Over Part Readings Reason Them Why

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Ethnic divisions can definitely be exacerbated by a lack of natural resources, but those tensions become violent when people manipulate them for their own political gain.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Become Definitely Divisions Ethnic Gain Lack Manipulate Natural Natural Resources Own People Political Resources Tensions Them Those Violent

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The Rwandan policy of putting the genocide behind them is incredibly effective in many ways. But it's also incredibly frightening to think that this nation is being asked put this mass slaughter behind them.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Also Asked Behind Being Effective Frightening Genocide Incredibly Many Mass Nation Policy Put Putting Slaughter Them Think Ways

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I tend to write longer narrative pieces after I've finished writing a novel - when the fiction's finished and put away, and I have a chance to take all the ideas that are buried inside of my novels and work with them directly.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: After Away Buried Chance Directly Fiction Finished Ideas Inside Longer Narrative Novel Novels Pieces Put Take Tend Them Work Write Writing

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I told my parents I was going to be a doctor and then a lawyer, but I never believed it and never tried.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Believed Doctor Going Lawyer Never Parents Then Tried

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Once I began college, I was committed to writing, which I think is different from saying I wanted to become a writer. I knew I would always write; I just wasn't always sure how I would go about doing so.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: About Always Become Began College Committed Different Doing Go How Just Knew Once Saying Sure Think Wanted Which Would Write Writer Writing I Think

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As for most writers, language is vital for me: a writer's ability to render a fictional world - characters, landscape, emotions - into something original that alters or deepens my understanding of both literature and life.

~Dinaw Mengestu

Topics: Ability Both Characters Emotions Fictional Landscape Language Life Literature Me Most Original Render Something Understanding Vital World Writer Writers

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Biography

Nationality: Ethiopian

Type: Novelist

Born: Unknown

Links

Find Dinaw Mengestu on Amazon

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