There's no violence worse than the violence of Iraq. For the last fifty years Iraq has been living a nightmare of violence and terror. It's been a ho…

- Hassan Blasim

We used to watch executions. I mentioned that in one of my stories. There was a piece of open ground near the area where we lived and we used to play…

- Hassan Blasim

How can one talk in a classical language about a child who's torn apart in an explosion in the market near his school? People in Iraq don't talk abou…

- Hassan Blasim

I'm talking about the essence of humanity. Hope is mixed into the blood of every human being, everywhere and in every time.

- Hassan Blasim

I studied at the Academy during the years of economic sanctions. Life was almost dead because the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the civilized world we…

- Hassan Blasim

We in Iraq have not descended from another planet. Just as people in many other countries have gotten over the tragedy of war, Iraq will get over its…

- Hassan Blasim

It's ridiculous and painful to use the Arabic of an Iraqi poet who lived centuries ago to describe what we in Iraq are suffering today.

- Hassan Blasim

Whenever we went out to film in the street we would end up in the police station and in the offices of some other security agency. They deliberately …

- Hassan Blasim

I didn't start publishing literary texts until I had left Iraq. At the Academy [of Cinematic Arts] I was busy with short films.

- Hassan Blasim