Although I have known Pakistan for a long time, I have never lived there
for longer than six months at a stretch...I have learned Pakistan by slices...however
I choose to write about over-there, I am forced to reflect that in fragments
of broken mirrors...I must reconcile myself to the inevitability of the
missing bits. ...
What is the best thing about migrant peoples and seceded nations? I think
it is their hopefulness...
And what is the worst thing? It is the emptiness of one's luggage....We
have floated upwards from history, from memory, from Time. (Imaginary Homelands
70-71)
"the ability to see at once from inside and out is a great thing, a piece
of good fortune which the indigenous writer cannot enjoy." (4)