Quotes by Porochista Khakpour

Porochista Khakpour

9/11 was just an enormous event in so many senses of the word – I mean, we are still in the “post-9/11 era” and perhaps will be forever? Sometimes it seems like it. It was such a monstrous act of imagination over anything else – the actual fatalities, while awful, were not what distinguished the event from others.

Forever

Imagination

Mean

Addiction is a very compelling subject for literature – especially now that it’s nearly impossible to come out of adult experience without some addiction – to substances, sure, but also to love, sex, success, failure, power.

Addiction

Adults

Sex

Be careful what you wish for, I guess. I believe – this will sound bloated, but I believe it – that true art, the potent stuff, can take the world down with it, just like religion can. And the opposite of course.

Art

Believe

Opposites

Because for me to go fully experimental, it would turn into an artist book actually. And I’m not opposed to that. But I wanted to toy with the conventions of traditional narrative and sometimes to do that all the way, you have to actually utilize traditional narrative, I think – or it’s one way to do it.

Artist

Book

Thinking

Being unique seems more desirable than ever. People are exhausted by clichés, by platitudes, by mass-produced realities, by what’s been done and done and done. The role of a true artist is to present their own unique vision, and so it has always made sense to me that works of art should be radical.

Art

Reality

Unique

But literature, I discovered, can also save you. Truly. Over the cliché and through the truth, it can save.

Literature

For me, every human is a little bit an exaggerated version of a real human – in most cases, they are versions of myself. I am someone deeply motivated by extremes – the poles not only become home for me, but they also become, strangely, my comfort zones.

Comfort

Home

Real

I always read the Latin American writers. I love so many of them: Gabriel García Márquez, José Donoso, Alejo Carpentier, Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector. I also love a lot of American experimental writers and surrealist European writers. But perhaps The Persian Book of Kings was the greatest influence – I encourage people to look at it. There is such a wealth of incredible stories.

Book

Kings

Latin

I both loved and hated South Pasadena. On the one hand, it was so diverse – all my closest friends were immigrants or had immigrant parents. On the other hand, it was a bit conservative – in a sort of wholesome, Midwestern, small-town sense. I never met a single writer until I moved to New York City for college.

College

Hands

New York

I guess none of the sides of my hyphen are particularly subtle cultures. But perhaps there is also a sense that these characters are all parentless – every character in this book is feral in some way – without any guidance in their upbringing. They find no choice but to seek refuge in extreme behaviors.

Book

Character

Choices

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Addiction

Adults

Aftermath

Age

America

Angel

Art

Artist

Believe

Book

Character

Choices

College

Color

Comfort

Country

Creativity

Doe

Doubt

Editing

Firsts

Forever

Hands

Home

Identity

Imagination

Jobs

Joy

Keys

Kings

Latin

Literature

Mad

Mean

Moving

New York

Numbers

Opportunity

Opposites

Paper

Population

Real

Reality

School

Sex

Talking

Technique

Thinking

Toilet Paper

Toilets

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Porochista Khakpour

Porochista Khakpour

Addiction is a very compelling subject for literature – especially now that it’s nearly impossible to come out of adult experience without some addiction – to substances, sure, but also to love, sex, success, failure, power.

Be careful what you wish for, I guess. I believe – this will sound bloated, but I believe it – that true art, the potent stuff, can take the world down with it, just like religion can. And the opposite of course.

But literature, I discovered, can also save you. Truly. Over the cliché and through the truth, it can save.

For me, every human is a little bit an exaggerated version of a real human – in most cases, they are versions of myself. I am someone deeply motivated by extremes – the poles not only become home for me, but they also become, strangely, my comfort zones.

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Topics by Porochista Khakpour

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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