Umar Hashmi

“Have you ever seen so many people," she whispered, "gathered in one place in order to be rich, powerful and disgusting together?”
― Don DeLillo, Underworld

“I found myself remembering the day in kindergarten when the teachers showed us Dumbo, and I realized for the first time that all the kids in the class, even the bullies, rooted for Dumbo, against Dumbo's tormentors. Invariably they laughed and cheered, both when Dumbo succeeded and when bad things happened to his enemies. But they're you, I thought to myself. How did they not know? They didn't know. It was astounding, an astounding truth. Everyone thought they were Dumbo.”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot

“It occurs to me that I really can't remember your face in any precise detail. Only the way you walked away through the tables in the café, your figure, your dress, that I still see.”
― Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

“I needed death in order to believe I was living, an atmosphere of death much more real and personal than anything the newspapers can offer.”
― Don DeLillo, Americana