I’m not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.
VIKRAM SETHIn 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.
More Vikram Seth Quotes
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You can talk good ideas out of existence.
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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.
VIKRAM SETH -
I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything.
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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 think it’s possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.
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In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I’ve remained an Indian.
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God save us from people who mean well.
VIKRAM SETH -
The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else.
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For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.
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I don’t pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.
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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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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.
VIKRAM SETH -
I don’t think anyone should be banned. If you don’t like a book, set it aside.
VIKRAM SETH -
So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
VIKRAM SETH