“The blast wave that passed through my sister’s office doubtless passed through devout Muslims, atheist Muslims, gay Muslims, funny Muslims, and lovestruck Muslims—not to mention Pakistani Christians, Chinese engineers, American security contractors, and Indian Sikhs. What civilization, then, did the bomb target? And from what civilization did it originate?”
― Discontent and Its Civilizations
― Discontent and Its Civilizations
“Carpetbaggers with no culture or moral compass, enabled and empowered with new money.”
― Fresh Off the Boat
― Fresh Off the Boat
“The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning roads, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indetations, scrolls.”
― Invisible Cities
― Invisible Cities
“Why South Asian actors could be funny or nerdy but never sexy, yet South Asian actresses had to be.”
― No Land's Man
― No Land's Man
“Yes, the empire is sick, and, what is worse, it is trying to become accustomed to its sores. This is the aim of my explorations: examining the traces of happiness still to be glimpsed, I gauge its short supply. If you want to know how much darkness there is around you, you must sharpen your eyes, peering at the faint lights in the distance.”
― Invisible Cities
― Invisible Cities
Ali’s 2025 Year in Books
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