Rabih Alameddine Quotes

In 1982, Algeria made their first appearance at the World Cup. I believe it was the first Arab country to do so.

- Rabih Alameddine

World Cup, Country, Algeria

A soccer game is a Wagner opera. The narrative sets up, the tension builds, the music ebbs and flows, the strings, the horns, more tension, and suddenly a moment of pure bliss, trumpet-tongued Gabriel sings, and gods descend from Olympus to dance - this peak of ecstasy.

- Rabih Alameddine

Game, Opera, Sings, Bliss

In the summer of 1988, my father took me up to look at the remains of our home, the dream house that he'd built. It was my first time since our family left four years earlier. Political and obscene graffiti covered the half-torn walls. There was no ceiling and surprisingly no floor: the parquet, the stone, the marble, all looted.

- Rabih Alameddine

Father, Political, Obscene, Ceiling

My father and I rarely saw eye to eye when I was growing up. We saw the world differently. It was only when we were both adults that we were able to share spectacles. However, football, and particularly the World Cup, was when we, enemy combatants, could traverse trenches and be together.

- Rabih Alameddine

Father, Enemy, However, Adult

I oscillate between being cynical and being naive on a regular basis. I always think that not much shocks me until something much too obvious does.

- Rabih Alameddine

Think, Always, Being, Regular Basis

Now I love hoops. I'm a diehard UCLA fan, have been since my freshman year. But basketball is the '1812 Overture.' Pomp and circumstance, fireworks and cannons, lots and lots of fun, and in the end, still Tchaikovsky.

- Rabih Alameddine

Love, Year, Been, Fireworks

A player should be disparaged if he gives less than his all, if he doesn't give 100%, no matter what shirt he's wearing. Whether it's your national team, your club, or little league. Yes, there are friendly matches, recreational ones, and so on, but sport in its essence is about giving your best.

- Rabih Alameddine

Friendly, Essence, About, Recreational

All living languages are promiscuous. We promiscuous speakers shamelessly shoplift words, plucking bons mots and phrases from any tempting language. We wear these words when we wish to be more formal, more elegant, more mysterious, worldly, precise, vague.

- Rabih Alameddine

Language, Vague, Wear, Promiscuous

No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism.

- Rabih Alameddine

Soccer, Needs, Reminded, Xenophobia

In Lebanon, there are completely different opinions and values in one country in terms of religion, modernity, tradition, East and West - which allows for a kind of intellectual development not available anywhere else.

- Rabih Alameddine

Values, Country, Available, Lebanon

The relationship between France and its 'foreign' players - blacks and North African Arabs - has always been troubled, particularly with Algerians.

- Rabih Alameddine

Always, Been, Particularly, Arabs

In school in Lebanon, we were not allowed to speak Arabic during breaks - it had to be French or English.

- Rabih Alameddine

School, Breaks, Were, Lebanon

There are over 1 million refugees in Lebanon, a country of 4 million people. How do we solve that? I have no idea. What's going on, I really don't know.

- Rabih Alameddine

Country, Over, Refugees, Lebanon

'Harat' is actually - it's a Lebanese dialect word. It comes from 'the mapmaker,' somebody who makes a map. And it basically means somebody who tells fibs or exaggerate tales a little bit.

- Rabih Alameddine

Makes, Means, Dialect, Lebanese

I jokingly say if there was one great thing about, you know, the Lebanese Civil War was that it forced me to read.

- Rabih Alameddine

Civil War, Read, Forced, Lebanese

When the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, I was 15. I was shipped to boarding school in England and, after that, to UCLA.

- Rabih Alameddine

War, England, Civil War, Lebanese

The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, spanned four World Cups. It would have been a more symmetrical five had the Lebanese begun in 1974, but you know, we're Mediterranean, and timing isn't our forte.

- Rabih Alameddine

Been, Begun, World Cups, Lebanese

English has always had a special fondness for other European languages, a neighborly soft spot - perhaps because Britain has been invaded by speakers of those languages from the onset of its recorded history.

- Rabih Alameddine

Always, Other, Been, Soft Spot

A phoenix, Beirut seems to always pull itself out its ashes, reinvents itself, has been conquered numerous times in its 7,000-year history, yet it survives by both becoming whatever its conquerors wished it to be and retaining its idiosyncratic persona.

- Rabih Alameddine

Been, Becoming, Numerous, Retaining

I stuck out more in an English public school than I would have had I marched in a May Day parade with the Red Army in Moscow or sashayed the Yves St. Laurent catwalk with supermodels or hunted seals with the Inuit or - well, you get the idea.

- Rabih Alameddine

Idea, Moscow, Public School, Seals

I loved problems on paper, and I was good at math, but I was a mechanical engineer, and I never understood - or cared to - how a car worked.

- Rabih Alameddine

Good, Engineer, Mechanical, Understood

In 1975, I left the burning city of Beirut for the quiet insanity of England. To say that short, frail and wispy 15-year-old me didn't fit in would be such an understatement as to be a joke.

- Rabih Alameddine

City, Insanity, England, Beirut

Language, after all, is organic. You can't force words into existence. You can't force new meanings into words. And some words can't or won't or shouldn't be laundered or neutered. Language develops naturally.

- Rabih Alameddine

Words, New, Some, Organic

Close friends consider me a literary snob.

- Rabih Alameddine

Me, Close Friends, Literary, Snob

My father loved Brazilian football, a diehard follower, so of course, he hated Germany and always rooted against them, always.

- Rabih Alameddine

Follower, Always, Against, Diehard

I get upset about what is taken as great literature and what is cute and exotic.

- Rabih Alameddine

Literature, Upset, Get, Exotic

Homophobia is rampant in soccer, probably more so than in any other sport. I'm not sure why.

- Rabih Alameddine

Soccer, Other, Sure, Rampant

Every writer uses his own way to motivate oneself.

- Rabih Alameddine

Own, His, Uses, Motivate

I allegedly am an outsider writer, so I write from the perspective of somebody who doesn't completely fit in. But at the same time, I can state the fact that I don't know of any good writer who is not an outsider writer.

- Rabih Alameddine

Fact, Good Writer, I Write, Outsider

If I were to pray in Arabic, I'd pray to Allah. If I were to pray in English, I'd pray to God.

- Rabih Alameddine

Allah, English, Were, Arabic

As teenagers, a lot of us just did not want much to do with Arabic culture - we looked to the West.

- Rabih Alameddine

Culture, Lot, Looked, Arabic

Whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative.

- Rabih Alameddine

Come, Narrative, Mired, Arabic

I always assumed that everyone knew no country would ever be awarded a World Cup without pricey gifts exchanging hands under the tables.

- Rabih Alameddine

World Cup, Country, Always, No Country

I started writing half a paragraph of a mystery novel, half a paragraph there, and they were terrible.

- Rabih Alameddine

Mystery, Paragraph, Half, Novel

If you go through any culture that has had wars, go to the bomb shelters, and you'll hear some amazing stories. Yes, it's a necessary thing that we actually both distract ourselves and it's a way to bond.

- Rabih Alameddine

Through, Some, Stories, Shelters

Before prognostication, a disclaimer: I have never been able to pick a winner. Not that it has ever stopped me from trying to. Well, it has stopped me from buying stock, but let's not talk about that.

- Rabih Alameddine

Been, Before, Stopped, Stock

I always say show me a storyteller who doesn't embellish, and I'll show you a bad one.

- Rabih Alameddine

Bad, Always, Show, Embellish

I read Shakespeare when I was 14 because it's what we were taught.

- Rabih Alameddine

Taught, Read, Were, Shakespeare

I've never had a problem finding a team, a league, or a pickup game. Actually, I'm not sure I want soccer to get bigger. We have so many teams in San Francisco that there aren't enough fields.

- Rabih Alameddine

Game, Had, Francisco, Pickup

If you want to know whether soccer is big in America, pick a weekend, go to any park in the land, and pay attention. We're there. We've always been.

- Rabih Alameddine

Soccer, Big, Always, Park

I was gay before I began to play soccer over 40 years ago. It's been 28 years since a friend and I organized one of the first gay soccer teams in the world.

- Rabih Alameddine

Soccer, Play, Over, Organized

I have to admit, I'm not patriotic. It has partly to do with principle, but it is also a phobia/neurosis.

- Rabih Alameddine

Admit, Principle, Patriotic, Partly

Nobody ever calls me a soccer-playing writer, even though I play soccer and it's part of who I am.

- Rabih Alameddine

Soccer, Play, Though, Calls

I can make up stories with the best of them. I've been telling stories since I was a little kid.

- Rabih Alameddine

Been, Stories, Telling, Make Up

We seem, particularly over here in the West and in America in particular, to have forgotten that we are, in large measures, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.

- Rabih Alameddine

Here, Over, Particularly, Forgotten

The reasons why a player is better on one club than on another are many. I certainly am not an expert and can't explain.

- Rabih Alameddine

Expert, Explain, Certainly, Club

When I was younger, I used to find stories about divas charming. Not much anymore.

- Rabih Alameddine

Find, Younger, Stories, Charming

I gave up on the delusion that these players enjoy soccer as much as I do, that they play for the love of the game.

- Rabih Alameddine

Love, Soccer, Play, Delusion

One of the things I enjoy most during the World Cup is watching a team improve, mature, and gel during the course of the tournament.

- Rabih Alameddine

World Cup, Enjoy, Mature, Cup

Soccer is the most widely played sport in the U.S.

- Rabih Alameddine

Soccer, Most, Played, Widely

I can easily hold two opposing beliefs at the same time without any problem, which I find - well, mind-expanding, really.

- Rabih Alameddine

Two, Which, Same Time, Opposing

A team without hope fizzles: no flameout, no fire.

- Rabih Alameddine

Hope, Team, Without, Fire

When I wrote my first book, 'Koolaids,' I felt rejected and not wanted.

- Rabih Alameddine

Book, Wanted, Wrote, Rejected

I was about 11 or 12 when I began to pick up my mother's books.

- Rabih Alameddine

Mother, Books, Pick, Began

A game of soccer induces more than enjoyment, more than entertainment.

- Rabih Alameddine

Soccer, Game, Enjoyment, Entertainment

I know many sports fans that don't enjoy soccer. The argument is that there's no action, not enough of it.

- Rabih Alameddine

Sports, Soccer, Know, Argument

I think I'm being conservative when I say there are more people playing soccer in the United States than in 90% of the world's other countries, probably 95%.

- Rabih Alameddine

Conservative, Other, I Think, More People

For me, soccer was a dance.

- Rabih Alameddine

Dance, Me, Soccer

I couldn't tell the truth if my life depended on it.

- Rabih Alameddine

Truth, My Life, Tell, Depended

Nobody ever said I'm a simple personality.

- Rabih Alameddine

Simple, Nobody, Ever, Personality

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