“Someone commented that my work was written in the cold detached Germanic style. When you’re from (Bangladesh), people expect writing to be warm with flavour and spice.” - Naeem Mohaiemen, Treasures in Texts
“Any place I go, what grabs me is the people. People make the place, not the other way around. And that’s how I feel in Bangladesh – like I’ve always been here.” - Kosal Khiev, Against All Odds
Advice for young women writers? “Just claim your space. Don’t waste your time being something other people want you to be.” - Nilanjana Roy, The Woman as a Writer
“You can’t have freedom without literature or literature without freedom of expression … Freedom of speech is how societies function.” - John Ralston Saul, Freedoms of Expression
“The real journalist is interested in everything but himself.” - Gideon Haigh, The Long Form
“In writing by women, a woman character gets out of problems by using her wits. With male writers, she uses her body.” - Muneeza Shamsie, The Woman as a Writer
“To get your writing to go viral, write in a way that people connect with it and share it … After all what is literature? It’s about connecting.” - Isaac Fitzgerald, Top Ten Buzzes of the Year
“A lot of people think freedom of expression is Western, but the Indian subcontinent has leaders, like Gandhi, who pushed for it.” - Salil Tripathi, Freedoms of Expression
“I am almost six-novels-old. It took me until the third novel to call myself a writer.” - Manju Kapur, The Woman as a Writer
“Every Bangladeshi is a poet. There is so much flexibility in our language. Our language is not fit for writing science, so I started encouraging people to write science fiction.” - Zafar Iqbal (Science Matters)