I think if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well.
VIKRAM SETHThose 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.
More Vikram Seth Quotes
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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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The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else.
VIKRAM SETH -
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.
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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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You get your inspiration – suggestions – wherever you have to, even from your mother.
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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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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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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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I just love music – by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.
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God save us from people who mean well.
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I want my books to sell, to be read. I’m not interested in being obscure.
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I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything.
VIKRAM SETH -
I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.
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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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Boredom provides a stronger inclination to write than anything.
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I am certainly not allergic to causes – particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.
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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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Man without life companion is either god or beast.
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I’m not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.
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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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Don’t put things off till it’s too late. You are the DJ of your fate.
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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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I think it’s possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.
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Good books get praised, bad books get praised. Good books get ignored, bad books get ignored.
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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.
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I don’t think anyone should be banned. If you don’t like a book, set it aside.
VIKRAM SETH