The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq Quotes

“الأموات نزيهون في العادة، حتى الأوغاد منهم”
― حسن بلاسم, معرض الجثث

“Spilled blood and superstition are the basis of the world. Man is not the only creature who kills for bread, or love, or power, because animals in the jungle do that in various ways, but he is the only creature who kills because of faith.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“The dead, Your Honor, do not agonize over their crimes and do not long to be happy, as you know.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“Every man has both a poetic obligation and a human obligation.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“The question of humanity can be solved only by constant dread.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“I wanted to reach back to other times I might have lived in, the traces of which are scattered to places I previously thought imaginary.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“سنتوسل إليه أن يعيد علينا الحكاية. لا حاجة لرفسه تحت خصيتيه كي يروي بصدق ونزاهة. فالأموات نزيهون في العادة، حتى الأوغاد منهم.”
― حسن بلاسم, ‫معرض الجثث‬

“Then he thrust the knife into my stomach and said:
"You're shaking.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“He sent you a text message that read: FIre Sign - You're compatible with all signs. Your blood group breathes disappointment and happiness. You stick your tongue in the woman's mouth in order to cool down. The fog that burns on the ceiling is the steam of sweat. You buy pins and colored pictures from the shop. You pin them on your flesh when you receive a guest. The firewood comes to you throughout the night, wrapped in nightmares. When you wake up you have a bath on fire. You eat on fire. You read the newspapers on fire. You smoke a cigarette on fire. In the coffee cup you come across prophecies of fire. You laugh on fire. You have your lungs checked at the hospital, and they find a spring of errors that looks like a tumor. You dream of the final act: It goes out.”
― Hassan Blasim Jonathan Wright, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“The dead, Your Honor, do not agonize over their crimes and do not long to be happy, as you know. If from time to time we hear the opposite, then those are just trivial religious and poetical exaggerations and ridiculous rumors, which have nothing to do with the real circumstances of the simple dead.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“أعطني بلداً يحترمني، لأعبده طوال حياتي وأصلي من أجله.”
― حسن بلاسم, ‫معرض الجثث‬

“يسهل للغاية نفي وجود الله عند معرفة يوم واحد من حياة أم عراقية.”
― حسن بلاسم, ‫معرض الجثث‬

“إلى قتلى الحرب العراقية الإيرانية (١٩٨٠ ـ ١٩٨٨) سنذهب إلى المقبرة، إلى مشرحة الموتى. نستأذن حراس الماضي. سنخرج الميت عارياً إلى الحديقة العامة.”
― حسن بلاسم, ‫معرض الجثث‬

“إن حاجتي هي كتابة هذه القصة، كلطخة خراء في قمصان النوم، وربما لطخة على شكل زهرة برية.”
― حسن بلاسم, ‫معرض الجثث‬

“ستكتشف تدريجياً أن العالم مُشيَد من أكثر من طابق, و ليس من المنطق ان يصل الجميع الى كل الطوابق و السراديب بسهولة”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“There's no need to kick him in the balls for him to tell the story honestly and impartially, because the dead are usually honest, even the bastards among them.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq

“It's bullshit what that bullshitter says. A story's a story, whether it's beautiful or bullshit.”
― Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq