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A poison can hardly be called safe if for some reason specific to me it's ineffective against, say, my body. But the power of story on the human mind is such that anecdote is often more persuasive than numbers. That's why news stories often concretize the impact of a change in government policy by following the story of one person.

Zia Haider Rahman

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Zia Haider Rahman
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: January 1
Novelist
Government
Policy
Persuasive
Body
Numbers
Poison
Person
Called
Hardly
Reason
Story
Specific
Human
Often
Following
Mind
Stories
Impact
Change
News
Anecdote
Power
Safe
Ineffective

More quotes by Zia Haider Rahman

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My own disposition is to trust the reader. Of course, there's a line between trusting the reader and expecting her to read your mind. That's where a friend or an editor comes in. A great editor will tell you straight when you've drifted into the latter territory.
Zia Haider Rahman
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There is snobbery in the idea that the modern cult of celebrity has not touched the lofty realm of letters. We are like visitors to a garden or flower show who wander the pathways and do not notice the beautiful flora but instead exchange murmurs about the appearance of the soil.
Zia Haider Rahman
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I don't want you to think that I'm being willfully obtuse, but I've never really grasped how point of view could be regarded as a matter of choice independent of story. Point of view is intimately interwoven into the story that you want to tell - it is an aspect of it.
Zia Haider Rahman
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The twentieth century saw a professionalization of fiction writing, particularly in its second half and particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world - not so much mainland Europe, for example.
Zia Haider Rahman
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Listening to people discussing a novel can be very interesting, if you've read whatever novel is being discussed. No one, it seems, ever says, This is a great book but I didn't like it. Taking a little time to think about why this might be has been very liberating.
Zia Haider Rahman
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Writing is indeed essential to me. I have been writing for a long time but not for publication. I'm sure there are many, many people who do the same. The rewards of writing are in the process and not the product - not just for me but for others I have met.
Zia Haider Rahman
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Our interaction with our friends, for instance, is in large part an interaction with representations in our own head of the people before us. That's why a friend can surprise or disappoint us.
Zia Haider Rahman
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The mathematical tilt remains basic to my epistemological perspective, my howling plea in the still of night for epistemic humility. Mathematics gave me that as, also, did the difficulty I had in talking to my parents. How proofs are conceived is unfathomable. Clearly, there are certain conditions in which the revelation takes place.
Zia Haider Rahman
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Until I reached my late teens, there was not enough money for luxuries - a holiday, a car, or a computer. I learned how to program a computer, in fact, by reading a book. I used to write down programs in a notebook and a few years later when we were able to buy a computer, I typed in my programs to see if they worked. They did. I was lucky.
Zia Haider Rahman
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I'm not sure, however, that what I have amounts to faith in the sense commonly understood. I have difficulty understanding the function of the word believe in the realm of faith, a basic term in the grammar of every creed.
Zia Haider Rahman
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Experience belongs to the actor, but the story belongs to the teller. We write so we will never forget.
Zia Haider Rahman
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Novels need readers of a certain kind, people who are patient and enjoy immersing themselves in another perspective for uninterrupted stretches of time. Reading habits might well be changing. People who pay for novels might overlap significantly with those who engage in Twitter and Facebook.
Zia Haider Rahman
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I'm interested in how a person forms her beliefs, how that happens. Beliefs of all kinds make up the animating force in each of us. Without them we would be paralyzed, lifeless - the glove without the hand.
Zia Haider Rahman