It is hard to write about physically difficult things without causing the reader to disengage.
AKHIL SHARMAAs a teacher, I can help my students see what is working and not working. I can show them certain solutions.
More Akhil Sharma Quotes
-
-
Why do people always think hurting others is all right, as long as they hurt themselves as well?
AKHIL SHARMA -
As a human being living one’s life, one is more open to relief when there is rain or the expectation of rain. That readiness for hope gets manifested in my stories and that of many other Indian writers.
AKHIL SHARMA -
Ernest Hemingway has been the most important influence on me as a writer. But at a certain point as a writer,
AKHIL SHARMA -
For me, a lot of the humor comes not from innocence but from characters trying to figure out how to get what they need. I don’t try to be funny, but am relieved when an opportunity comes up for humor.
AKHIL SHARMA -
People often need to describe things quickly and so they use a shorthand. The problem is that after they use a label, they begin to think only in terms of the label instead of the totality of the experience a novel provides.
AKHIL SHARMA -
Exposition suggests a great trust in the reader, and this expression of trust makes a book feel tender.
AKHIL SHARMA -
We all become afraid. We all look at others and think these other people are more fortunate than us.
AKHIL SHARMA -
I tend to think that we are all pretty much alike. We all feel despair. We all have problems with relationships.
AKHIL SHARMA -
Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.
AKHIL SHARMA -
Even within my stories, people hold opposing views.
AKHIL SHARMA -
It is hard to create a first-person narrator that can be a child and yet is able to take in enough information for the narrative to be legible to the reader.
AKHIL SHARMA -
My parents are deeply pious Hindus.
AKHIL SHARMA -
The monsoon is such a dominant part of Indian life that it is hard to overstate its importance.
AKHIL SHARMA -
I can’t have composite characters. I can’t attribute dialogue to someone based simply on my memory and not based on notes taken at the time that the words were spoken.
AKHIL SHARMA -
While a dramatized scene is a way of proving and guaranteeing an emotional experience for the reader, exposition assumes that the reader is sophisticated and can see the universal.
AKHIL SHARMA -
The babies have old souls and the old souls have to shrink to become little babies.
AKHIL SHARMA -
When someone gets a success, and we, too, have done good work and sometimes even better work than the person who has just triumphed, we wonder: Why did success pass me by?
AKHIL SHARMA -
If anybody reads an Indian newspaper, all these things are obvious, and so I am not breaking news. All I am doing is representing my community as it actually is.
AKHIL SHARMA -
The little babies are missing their families from their past lives.
AKHIL SHARMA -
Seven years into writing a novel, I started to lose my mind.
AKHIL SHARMA -
I can guide them to books that will serve as role models. Largely, though, one learns to write almost like developing muscle memory, and this requires years of effort.
AKHIL SHARMA -
One’s life completely changes based on the rain. After the monsoon, because the dust settles, one can see further and so it feels like one’s eyesight has improved or that one is living in a different country where there is more light.
AKHIL SHARMA -
The tears loosen their memories so they can slide away. They cry at the life they have lost, and then they cry at everything they’ll forget.
AKHIL SHARMA -
Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.
AKHIL SHARMA -
For me, a memoir is nonfiction and nonfiction has to be absolutely true.
AKHIL SHARMA -
Sandeep Jauhar gives us an insider’s look at the medical profession and also a dramatic account of the psychological challenges of early adulthood.
AKHIL SHARMA