I’m not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.
VIKRAM SETHRevision has its own peculiar pleasures and its own peculiar frustrations. The ground rules are already established; the characters already exist. You don’t have to bring the characters to life, but you do have to make them more convincing.
More Vikram Seth Quotes
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Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person’s power. Be just to yourself.
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There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy.
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You can talk good ideas out of existence.
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I don’t pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.
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I don’t think anyone should be banned. If you don’t like a book, set it aside.
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I just love music – by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.
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So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
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Those books of mine that are remunerative – I’m not talking about poetry here – take years to write, and I am never sure they’ll be successful. So writing is a risk in more senses than one.
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Boredom provides a stronger inclination to write than anything.
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And the process of reading is such a private one. I once came into a room where a friend of mine was reading one of my books, and he clicked his tongue impatiently and shooed me off.
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Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth?
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I am certainly not allergic to causes – particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.
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Put your backbone where your wishbone is.
VIKRAM SETH -
Revision has its own peculiar pleasures and its own peculiar frustrations. The ground rules are already established; the characters already exist. You don’t have to bring the characters to life, but you do have to make them more convincing.
VIKRAM SETH -
I think if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well.
VIKRAM SETH