I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.
VIKRAM SETHQuietly 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.
More Vikram Seth Quotes
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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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Man without life companion is either god or beast.
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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 can talk good ideas out of existence.
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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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God save us from people who mean well.
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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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I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature.
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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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Put your backbone where your wishbone is.
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I want my books to sell, to be read. I’m not interested in being obscure.
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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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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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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.
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Every object strives for its proper place. A book seeks to be near its truest admirer. Just as this helpless moth seeks to be near the candle that infatuates him.
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I’m not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.
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In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I’ve remained an Indian.
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What is the difference between my life and my love? One gets me low, the other lets me go.
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In life’s brief game to be a winner A man must have; oh yes, above All else, of course, someone to love.
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You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.
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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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And an equation is the same whether it’s written in red or green ink.
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In a painting, you can’t make out whether the artist painted the left eye before the right eye. In Chinese calligraphy, you can see the progression of the artist’s stroke.
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Of course, the greater one’s need, the greater one’s propensity to be mesmerized.
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I am certainly not allergic to causes – particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.
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I think if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well.
VIKRAM SETH