Free-market ideology

“I don’t think it’s an ideology that should be taken entirely seriously. I don’t think people come to it for the most part out of intellectual curiosity. I think it is a story that is incredibly convenient to elites because it rationalises extremely antisocial behaviour. It’s an ideology I don’t want to make peace with.”

--Naomi Klein

Richard Flanagan quote

 I think sometimes writers must attempt to communicate the incommunicable, because, whether they wish it or not, they’re the ones to whom it falls.

"Who do you think deserves a Nobel Prize and why?"

The Swedish Academy posts this question at its website. Why?

Is it to remind the people of Alfred Nobel's dictate that the prizes are for "..those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."

Or is it a ploy to change the selection process by seeking public mandate to choose the winners?

We view this question with suspicion.  The Academy should maintain its distance from the public, and under no circumstances, undermine/ dilute its policy of selection of the winners.

Samar Yazbek interview

In the West, but also in the Orient, people tend to focus on the body and everything that's physically banned. And as you said: this is a novel about a relationship between two women. But relationships in societies ruled by dictators are always dysfunctional. As such, the relationship between these two women is also dysfunctional. In the case of my book, we're looking at a 12-year-old child who is raped, abused, and who in the course of the book herself turns into the same kind of "beast", becoming aggressive and exercising power of her own.