Prepared by: The Guardian
Translation: Telegrafi.com On totalitarianism
- The hell of communism, like any other hell, was drowning in the worst sense of the word. But literature transformed it into a life force, into the force that helped you survive and hold your head high and win over the dictatorship. - In a place like that, the first and most important thing for a writer, the most essential, is this: don't take the regime seriously. You are a writer, you will have a much richer life than they do; in one sense or another you are eternal compared to that kind of people, and after all you don't need to bother too much about them. On Enver Hoxha, the Albanian ruler from 1944 until his death in 1985
- When Hoxha broke with the Soviet Union in 1962, he was ready to return to Europe, but was rejected, so he made a short-lived, absurd alliance with China. When that backfired, he built thousands of nuclear anti-ballistic domes which he knew were useless, but wanted to create a fear psychosis. Albania suffered more than any other country in Eastern Europe. - Hoxha imagined himself as an intellectual and poet who had been to the Sorbonne and did not want to be seen as an enemy of writers. Of course, he could have killed me in a "car accident" or by "suicide", as he did with many others.On his qualification as a political writer
- My opinion is that I am not a political writer and, moreover - as far as real literature is concerned - there are in fact no political writers. I think that my writing is no more political than ancient Greek theater. In any political regime I would have become the writer that I am. - I have never claimed to be a "dissident" in the proper sense of the term. Open opposition to Hoxha's regime was simply impossible, just as open opposition to Stalin during Stalin's reign in Russia was impossible. Dissent was a position that no one could occupy, even for a few days, without facing the firing squad. On the other hand, my books themselves constitute a very visible form of resistance to the regime.For international success
- On the one hand, this provided me with protection from the regime, and on the other hand, I was constantly under surveillance. Because the suspicion that haunted them was "why does the Western bourgeoisie highly value a writer from a Stalinist country"?For the Albanian language
- For me, as a writer, Albanian is simply an extraordinary means of expression - rich, malleable, suitable.On the books
- I hated Soviet books, full of sunshine, with work in the fields, joyful spring, summer full of hope. The first time I heard the words "hope" and "hard work", I got tired. - The founding father of Albanian literature is the 19th century writer, Naim Frashëri. Without having the greatness of Dante or Shakespeare, he is still the founder, an emblematic character. He wrote long epic poems, as well as lyrical poems, to awaken the national consciousness of Albania. After him came Gjergj Fishta. We can say that these two are the giants of Albanian literature, the ones that children study in schools. Later came other poets and writers who produced works perhaps better than those two, but do not occupy the same place in the nation's memory.About censorship
- In the early 60s, life in Albania was pleasant and well-organized. The writer could not have known that he should not write about the falsification of history. - For a writer, personal freedom is not so important. It is not individual freedom that guarantees the greatness of literature, otherwise writers in democratic countries would be superior to all others. Some of the greatest writers have written under dictatorship - Shakespeare, Cervantes. Great universal literature has always had a tragic relationship with freedom. The Greeks gave up absolute freedom and imposed order on chaotic mythology, like a tyranny. In the West, the problem is not freedom. There are other servitudes - lack of talent, thousands of mediocre books published every year. - I created a body of literary works during the time of two diametrically opposed political systems: a tyranny that lasted 35 years (1955-1990) and 20 years of freedom. In both cases, what can destroy literature is the same thing: self-censorship.On contemporary literature
- They say that contemporary literature is very dynamic, because it is influenced by cinema, television, and the speed of communication. But the opposite is true! If you compare the texts of ancient Greece with today's literature, you will notice that the classics operated on a much larger terrain, painted on a much wider canvas, and had an infinitely greater dimension. - All this noise about innovations, about new genres, is dull. There is real literature and then there is the rest.On being a writer
- I don't work more than two hours a day. - Writing is neither a happy nor an unhappy profession - it's something in between. It's almost a second life. - I am very grateful for literature, because it gives me the opportunity to overcome the impossible. /Telegraph/
