Neamat Imam

‘Tell me something about your life, ‘he said. ‘My life?’ the rickshaw-wallah asked. ‘I do not have one.’

— Neamat Imam

‘Every man has a vision,’ Nur Hussain said. ‘Whether he understands it or not.

— Neamat Imam

It is ego that makes a man.

— Neamat Imam

‘Do not burden yourself with problems that you do not understand,’ he said. ‘If you do, then only the problems win. Human life becomes a tragedy.’

— Neamat Imam

No man is more of a stranger to you than you are to him. Receive him with trust.

— Neamat Imam

Look beyond your self-importance and pain. You will know yourself better.

— Neamat Imam

Our hearts have to cry to end our tears.

— Neamat Imam

Everyone has to do something for survival, but that something does not have to define the real character of a person. I am what my head tells me I am. I am what my feelings say I am. I do not depend on anyone’s approval.

— Neamat Imam

Becoming a nationalist is not a matter of decision; it means one has locked one’s mind forever. No reason or practical advice or evidence is strong enough to unlock it.

— Neamat Imam

I wanted to save my face because only that was what I had.

— Neamat Imam

There is no question that could not be asked in this land.

— Neamat Imam

No government will ever surrender to the wishes of its people. No society will ever be free from the control of its government.

— Neamat Imam

It is hard for a faithful citizen to believe that his government does not care about him.

— Neamat Imam

You can’t predict anything about a ruler.

— Neamat Imam

Life is not supposed to make things complex. It is to unwind things, by giving simple answers to simple questions.

— Neamat Imam

Let us face the truth: why should I feel guilty for being alive? Why should I sacrifice my life in order to prove that I am strong?

— Neamat Imam

Desperation guides us in life. Rationality does not.

— Neamat Imam

Seventy million people will talk about seventy million solutions to the same problem.

— Neamat Imam

A man should have the right to choose his own shoes.

— Neamat Imam

Shoes could be sold and resold, unlike a Constitution.

— Neamat Imam

Suffering is not an otherworldly affair; it will never be that a person won’t be able to unearth the mystery of his suffering in his lifetime.

— Neamat Imam

It is not mandatory, I thought, that a society must have people who are vile and who rear filthiness instead of grit and ambition.

— Neamat Imam

There is no good or evil in the world. Only images.

— Neamat Imam

‘So this is what famine does to a person,’ I thought as I walked back home. ‘It does not bring one to his knees only; it eats one alive. It is hungrier than a hungry man.’

— Neamat Imam

The taller the building, the better the view.

— Neamat Imam

Imagine a day when this yard will be crowded with hundreds of leaders of the country. They will compete with each other, argue with each other, insult each other, throw shoes, leather bags, teacups, microphones and chairs at each other, break each other’s neck and determination, and then, at the end of the day, shamelessly compromise with each other for the sake of the party, and on the order of the leader.

— Neamat Imam

People want to see you own something as precious so that they are assured that you are not going to steal from them. The richer the leader, the more respected he is.

— Neamat Imam

Walking is always for tomorrow; yesterday’s walk, today’s walk, tomorrow’s walk – all for tomorrow. That is what this world is.

— Neamat Imam

This day says nothing different to me than to you.

— Neamat Imam