In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I’ve remained an Indian.
VIKRAM SETHIt is exciting to write about the present once one gets beyond the trivia of the moment. As a time to live in, as a time to think about, the present is intriguing.
More Vikram Seth Quotes
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I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I’m not. I’m just obsessed with my work.
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For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.
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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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To not be able to love the one you love is to have your life wrenched away.
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Of course, the greater one’s need, the greater one’s propensity to be mesmerized.
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I’m not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.
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I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books.
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You can talk good ideas out of existence.
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I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything.
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I want my books to sell, to be read. I’m not interested in being obscure.
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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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Boredom provides a stronger inclination to write than anything.
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All you who sleep tonight Far from the ones you love, No hand to left or right, An emptiness above– Know that you aren’t alone. The whole world shares your tears, Some for two nights or one, And some for all your years.
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Good books get praised, bad books get praised. Good books get ignored, bad books get ignored.
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You get your inspiration – suggestions – wherever you have to, even from your mother.
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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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Man without life companion is either god or beast.
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I think it’s possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.
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I don’t pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.
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I spent many years of my life as an economist and demographer. I was finally distracted by writing my novels and poetry. I’m enormously happy that was the case. I feel that with writing I have found my metier.
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My eyes close. I am here and not here. A waking nap? A flight to the end of the galaxy and perhaps a couple of billion light-years beyond?
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Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river that had come down to earth so that its waters might flow over the ashes of those long dead, and that would continue to flow long after the human race had, through hatred and knowledge, burned itself out.
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I certainly think its very important that writers as citizens – not necessarily as writers, but just as ordinary citizens – should talk about things that matter to them.
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You have to learn a few things, which you do along the way, but basically, poetry is a matter of the ear. Iambic pentameters or what constitutes a stanza comes naturally – your ears will know.
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I don’t think people give Indian society enough credit. We may not like to talk much about things but we do, basically, want to live and let live.
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It’s not the gods But our own hearts We need to fear. The evil starts Against all odds Not there but here.
VIKRAM SETH