Rawi Hage

Hage in 2009

Rawi Hage (born 1964) is a Lebanese-Canadian writer and photographer.

Quotes

• …I suspect that I can attribute my style to Arabic poetry…I permit myself to be overtly poetical in my writing. Maybe because I grew up in a culture that values poetry more than anything…But having said that, not all the writing is lyrical. It fluctuates to social realism sometimes, to different influences.
  • On how his writings relate to Arabic poetry in “Rare Interview With Rawi Hage: ‘I’m Free To Be Difficult’” in Mideast Posts (2013 Nov 7)

• …I have to be in this frame of mind where I’m feeling pity for myself, and feeling pity for the world. Once I’ve attained the summit of this, then I have to sit down and write…
  • On how he begins the writing process in “Rare Interview With Rawi Hage: ‘I’m Free To Be Difficult’” in Mideast Posts (2013 Nov 7)

• …When I recall the war, I recall it in images, not verbally or by text. That’s what really comes to me: fragmented images, much like photographs…
  • On how memory plays into his works in “‘What I Fear Most is Homogeneity’: An Interview with Rawi Hage” in Hazlitt (2018 Sep 12)

• …The responsibility, the burden, is much heavier for us. If we don’t exercise our collective imagination—and not just documentation —we’ll always be at a certain disadvantage. I think what literature could provide us with is showing other possibilities. What I fear most is homogeneity.
  • On the burden of racialized writers to represent their communities in “‘What I Fear Most is Homogeneity’: An Interview with Rawi Hage” in Hazlitt (2018 Sep 12)