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.
VIKRAM SETHI am certainly not allergic to causes – particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.
More Vikram Seth Quotes
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And an equation is the same whether it’s written in red or green ink.
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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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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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I don’t pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.
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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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I think it’s possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.
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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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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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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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The past is the past, and he can’t make amends, only hope that the gain will outlast the damage.
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Dear though the reader might be, I’d be silly to cater to what the reader wanted.
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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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Put your backbone where your wishbone is.
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For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.
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Good books get praised, bad books get praised. Good books get ignored, bad books get ignored.
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I just love music – by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.
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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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I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books.
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Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music-not too much, or the soul could not sustain it-from time to time.
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I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.
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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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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 simply seem to drift. But I sort of allow the drift, because it has a kind of check – it forces me to work harder at what I’m interested in.
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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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You get your inspiration – suggestions – wherever you have to, even from your mother.
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The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else.
VIKRAM SETH