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
Related When the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, I was 15. I was shipped to boarding school in England a... RABIH ALAMEDDINE The answer isn't more time but a greater awareness of the time we have. CRAIG GROESCHEL I jokingly say if there was one great thing about, you know, the Lebanese Civil War was that it forc... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I was a child during the Lebanese civil war, and I remember Israeli bombardments. So growing up, my ... ZIAD DOUEIRI For years, Lebanese have known that Palestinian camps like Nahr al-Barid and Ain al-Helwe - hopeless... RICHARD ENGEL We have to look to the well-being of the Lebanese citizens and create prosperity in the country, and... NAJIB MIKATI If you want to judge if a party is a Lebanese enough, let me say we take up arms and fight against t... HASSAN NASRALLAH Everyone says we have our first African American president. Has there ever been a Jewish president? ... MONTE IRVIN How my film career happened, I don't know. It was unplanned. I'd been in films and TV throug... JOHN HURT I have complete confidence in Lebanese judges but, in order to do their job properly, the Lebanese j... FOUAD SINIORA Certainly the caffeine in coffee, whether it's Starbucks or generic coffee, is somewhat of a sti... HOWARD SCHULTZ I know the world isn't fair, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor? BILL WATTERSON I am Lebanese, and I know the interests of my country. NAJIB MIKATI I will continue to fulfill my responsibilities to safeguard the Constitution, Lebanese laws and the ... DETLEV MEHLIS I will continue to fulfil my responsibilities to safeguard the constitution, Lebanese laws and the i... EMILE LAHOUD I don't know about five guys against the world. It's more like five guys against these three... BENMONT TENCH We freed the Lebanese engineer few minutes ago. ABDUL HAKIMI There was a president imposed by Syria. Our battle... is to have a Lebanese president that we elect. WALID JUMBLATT Nowadays it has become more risky. They have listening devices stronger than the Lebanese Army. They... WALID JUMBLATT I'm a professional world champion. Of course if you're a world champion, you're working ... LAILA ALI I believe that we haven't begun to understand the many forces that bind the physical world, any ... TAMORA PIERCE the Lebanese people have the right to defend their land. YASSER ARAFAT a decisive victory for the opposition and the Lebanese people. WALID JUMBLATT not only on the Palestinian track (but) the Lebanese track and the Syrian track so that we can have ... ARIEL SHARON The mainstream media today has the biggest disconnect with its audience that it's ever, ever had... RUSH LIMBAUGH a variety of credible Lebanese sources. ROBIN WRIGHT In 1954, 1974 and 1990 there were bad results prior to the tournaments and heated discussions. But w... THEO ZWANZIGER Only in South Africa could you have a change in government without civil war. If there wasn't th... PATRICE MOTSEPE I've had every chemo in the alphabet, most of them more than once. Some of them that aren't ... CRAIG SAGER Even during the rationing period, during World War II, we didn't have the anxiety that we'd ... JAMES EARL JONES Breast cancer isn't one disease - it's probably four or five different types, and without kn... LEROY HOOD Life isn't one-dimensional. The world isn't simply divided into good versus evil. I think we... ALEXANDER SKARSGARD Syria has a strategic position in the region, I don't deny her role, her alliance with the resistanc... HASSAN NASRALLAH The sky isn't falling. We're not going to have more meteors hit because of sequestration. SAM GRAVES Well, a lot of our concerts do okay, and I know we still get royalty checks which still isn't th... BRUCE JOHNSTON My mom was a history teacher, so I couldn't really avoid history when I was growing up. But we... OWAIN YEOMAN You know, being a test pilot isn't always the healthiest business in the world. ALAN SHEPARD Life isn't fair, and it isn't government's job to make life fair. But if you're not ... TAMMY DUCKWORTH 'Harat' is actually - it's a Lebanese dialect word. It comes from 'the mapmaker,'... RABIH ALAMEDDINE America's real plan is to fuel a civil war, while the national plan is for all Lebanese to live in p... HASSAN NASRALLAH When you're in school, every little mistake is a permanent crack in your windshield. But in the ... DREW HOUSTON I would love to have a conversation with you when we're working, and if I'm at a basketball ... EMILY RIOS Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Let's head out to the ruins." - Dan Cahill ROLAND SMITH When two people decide to get a divorce, it isn't a sign that they 'don't understand'... HELEN ROWLAND We take what's shown on television as the truth, and it isn't. News isn't even the truth... VAL KILMER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There isn't a more important issue in the world than global warming. Even the Cold War and the B... SIMON BEAUFOY 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is just sort of there isn't it? Every single trope of t... TONY BRADMAN In 'Twilight,' you're setting up the world. You're introducing the world, and I was ... MELISSA ROSENBERG Our show was - it remained - you know, kids could watch it and laugh at it. And they wouldn't kn... RUE MCCLANAHAN The more you hesitate in a game, the more your chance of getting hit. Your focus isn't there. Wh... SIDNEY CROSBY I have scored some big-time goals. I've done well in Algarve Cups. I've done well in World C... CARLI LLOYD Here's the thing. Just because you're pro-troops doesn't mean you're pro-war. And ju... TOBY KEITH I remember hearing the song when I was 12 or 14 in - it must have been in Chicago, 'cause we did... ABBEY LINCOLN There really isn't a story that you can't tell inside of it. It's very much a clearingho... AARON SORKIN You'd imagine Mick would be the happiest person in the world, and yet a lot of the times he isn&... CHARLIE WATTS If we went back to the imprisonment rate we had in the early '70s, something like four out of fi... EUGENE JARECKI Since 2006, when the Second Lebanon War killed perhaps 2,000 Lebanese, many of them civilians, and l... MARTIN VAN CREVELD Gamer humor ranges all over the place. What it comes down to is taking a lot of what we see in gamin... FREDDIE WONG Environmentalism isn't a discipline or specialty. It's a way of seeing our place in the worl... DAVID SUZUKI We got ratings. It isn't that they won't quarrel with you, or say you're always right. B... NORMAN LEAR My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE I think it's important that the rest of the world know that we're not all the same and that ... JAMES DENTON What people need to know is that asthma isn't a minor 'wheeze-disease.' It kills over fi... JACKIE JOYNER-KERSEE In my home country, which is one of the oldest kingdoms in the world, you're born with the title... PILOU ASBAEK We live in a world where people think that finding a passion is so rare that if you find one you'... LARRY SMITH In 'The Hunger Games,' in most people's idea, in terms of rebellion or a civil-war situa... SUZANNE COLLINS After 'Psychonauts,' we could have laid off half our team so that we'd have more money a... TIM SCHAFER It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON I know 'Vikings' isn't really based in magic, but it goes back to Old World spirituality... MADCHEN AMICK We had a tiny budget for 'The Greatest,' which was the opposite of 'Wall Street.' We... CAREY MULLIGAN Maybe I should have played two more Australians and two less Davis Cups? I could have had more major... JOHN MCENROE We are a resilient country. We've been through a Civil War; we've been through two World War... RICK PERRY Our record should have been flip-flopped. There was an inning in four or five games where we lost ga... BRET MEULI I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES China gets their oil from Libya. Why isn't China involved? They're going out spending billio... DONALD TRUMP I enjoyed my upbringing, my siblings did, we're polite, we're respectful, but at the end of ... TINIE TEMPAH Sometimes it seems like there's more footnotes than text. This isn't something we're pro... BARRY DILLER The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know ... RONALD REAGAN It's the moms of this nation - single, married, widowed - who really hold this country together.... ANN ROMNEY The English don't like concepts, really, not from a pop star. It's alright if they come from... BRIAN ENO I would assert that highly effective leaders are made more than they're born. Every leader I kno... DOUGLAS CONANT In a democratic age, you can't buck demography - except through civil war. PANKAJ MISHRA I was not influenced by Jack Benny, and people have remarked on my timing and Jack's timing, but... BOB NEWHART Again, in Wag the Dog, war has to be declared by an act of congress. But if you go to war, you don... VAL KILMER By doing something positive in this world, you're helping people and the future. We're all t... RICK DANKO We're all moving, moving, moving. Isn't it nice? CHARLES OLSON I can't help but view the world mystically. It's how I see it. I'm not a strict material... SCOTT DERRICKSON We give you this story. It is for the audience to be moved and gut wrenched, not us. It isn't as... LINDA LAVIN It's been vindicating to see the reaction from lawmakers, judges, public bodies around the world... EDWARD SNOWDEN Infinite power just isn't very interesting, no matter what game you're playing. It's muc... MARKUS PERSSON Boldness isn't something you're born with; you either choose it or you don't. MIKE YACONELLI Even in the deepest love relationship - when lovers say 'I love you' to each other - we don&... DUANE MICHALS Every single Pixar film, at one time or another, has been the worst movie ever put on film. But we k... JOHN LASSETER I don't know why we're not interested in seeing good people. I think we like seeing good peo... JAMES MCAVOY In New York there isn't that weird palpable competitive thing where it's friendly but everyo... DAVID CROSS You're sort of programmed a certain way because of your environment. That's all you know. Bu... JOE ROGAN I really don't know what it's like in 'Twilight,' but I know in the young-adult genr... ALDEN EHRENREICH For the first time in the history of Lebanon, the Lebanese feel that they have the power to decide t... ELIAS ATALLAH
More Rabih Alameddine
When I was younger, I used to find stories about divas charming. Not much anymore. RABIH ALAMEDDINE I jokingly say if there was one great thing about, you know, the Lebanese Civil War was that it forc... RABIH ALAMEDDINE We seem, particularly over here in the West and in America in particular, to have forgotten that we ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I can easily hold two opposing beliefs at the same time without any problem, which I find - well, mi... RABIH ALAMEDDINE Before prognostication, a disclaimer: I have never been able to pick a winner. Not that it has ever ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE If you want to know whether soccer is big in America, pick a weekend, go to any park in the land, an... RABIH ALAMEDDINE All living languages are promiscuous. We promiscuous speakers shamelessly shoplift words, plucking b... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I read Shakespeare when I was 14 because it's what we were taught. RABIH ALAMEDDINE A player should be disparaged if he gives less than his all, if he doesn't give 100%, no matter ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I loved problems on paper, and I was good at math, but I was a mechanical engineer, and I never unde... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I oscillate between being cynical and being naive on a regular basis. I always think that not much s... RABIH ALAMEDDINE There are over 1 million refugees in Lebanon, a country of 4 million people. How do we solve that? I... RABIH ALAMEDDINE A soccer game is a Wagner opera. The narrative sets up, the tension builds, the music ebbs and flows... RABIH ALAMEDDINE My father and I rarely saw eye to eye when I was growing up. We saw the world differently. It was on... RABIH ALAMEDDINE Now I love hoops. I'm a diehard UCLA fan, have been since my freshman year. But basketball is th... RABIH ALAMEDDINE In Lebanon, there are completely different opinions and values in one country in terms of religion, ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE Close friends consider me a literary snob. RABIH ALAMEDDINE No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism. RABIH ALAMEDDINE 'Harat' is actually - it's a Lebanese dialect word. It comes from 'the mapmaker,'... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I wonder if being sane means disregarding the chaos that is life, pretending only an infinitesimal s... RABIH ALAMEDDINE In 1982, Algeria made their first appearance at the World Cup. I believe it was the first Arab count... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I allegedly am an outsider writer, so I write from the perspective of somebody who doesn't compl... RABIH ALAMEDDINE If I were to pray in Arabic, I'd pray to Allah. If I were to pray in English, I'd pray to Go... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I always say show me a storyteller who doesn't embellish, and I'll show you a bad one. RABIH ALAMEDDINE In 1975, I left the burning city of Beirut for the quiet insanity of England. To say that short, fra... RABIH ALAMEDDINE A phoenix, Beirut seems to always pull itself out its ashes, reinvents itself, has been conquered nu... RABIH ALAMEDDINE My father loved Brazilian football, a diehard follower, so of course, he hated Germany and always ro... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I get upset about what is taken as great literature and what is cute and exotic. RABIH ALAMEDDINE Whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the nar... RABIH ALAMEDDINE Me? I was lost for long time. I didn’t make any friends for few years. You can say I made friends ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE ...What happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what hap... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I also understand that you have to lie to yourself to survive in a bad marriage, you have to delude ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I wonder whether there is such a thing as a sense of individuality. Is it all a facade, covering a d... RABIH ALAMEDDINE When the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, I was 15. I was shipped to boarding school in England a... RABIH ALAMEDDINE ...I wondered at times whether I would wake up and this would be just a bad dream, a nightmare that ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I believe one has to escape oneself to discover oneself. RABIH ALAMEDDINE By nature, a storyteller is a plagiarist. Everything one comes across—each incident, book, novel, ... RABIH ALAMEDDINE In order to live, I have to blind myself to my infinitesimal dimensions in this infinite universe. RABIH ALAMEDDINE