Vikram Seth quotes

Vikram Seth is an Indian novelist, poet, and essayist, acclaimed for his wide-ranging literary works. His novel "A Suitable Boy" is considered one of the longest and most celebrated books in modern Indian literature. He has received numerous awards and continues to influence readers worldwide with his storytelling. Here are 49 of his quotes:

You too will marry a boy I choose,' said Mrs Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter. Lata avoided the maternal imperative by looking around the great lamp-lit garden of Prem Nivas. The wedding-guests were gathered on the lawn. 'Hmm,' she said. This annoyed her mother further.

Vikram Seth

Some men like Jack and some like Jill I'm glad I like them both but still I wonder if this freewheeling Really is an enlightened thing, Or is its greater scope a sign Of deviance from some party line? In the strict ranks of Gay and Straight What is my status: Stray? Or Great?

Vikram Seth

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.

Vikram Seth

Poetry, I think, intensifies the reader's experience. If it's a humorous facet of the story, poetry makes it more exuberant. If it's a sad facet, poetry can make it more poignant.

Vikram Seth

I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything.

Vikram Seth

I'm not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.

Vikram Seth

It is exciting to write about the present once one gets beyond the trivia of the moment. As a time to live in, as a time to think about, the present is intriguing.

Vikram Seth

Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person's power. Be just to yourself.

Vikram Seth

God save us from people who mean well.

Vikram Seth

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.

Vikram Seth

Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth?

Vikram Seth

What is the difference between my life and my love? One gets me low, the other lets me go.

Vikram Seth

It's not the gods But our own hearts We need to fear. The evil starts Against all odds Not there but here.

Vikram Seth

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.

Vikram Seth

Imagining the flower-pot attacked it The kitten flung the violets near and far And yet, who knows? This morning, as I backed it, My car was set upon by a parked car.

Vikram Seth

Everyone sort of sees his own life and times as being ephemeral. One thinks that everything good or important that happened, happened in the past. But I think that seeing scenes that you are used to, but with the heightening effects of poetry, perhaps makes you value your life and times more than you might otherwise do.

Vikram Seth

I am certainly not allergic to causes - particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.

Vikram Seth

I think if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well.

Vikram Seth

You can talk good ideas out of existence.

Vikram Seth

I just love music - by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.

Vikram Seth

I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books.

Vikram Seth

Good music is good music, but it has to be good.

Vikram Seth