Arundhati Quotes

His gratitude widened his smile and bent his back. — Arundhati Roy

She woke to the sound of his heart knocking against his chest. As though it was searching for a way out. — Arundhati Roy

But can we, should we, let apprehensions about the future immobilize us in the present? — Arundhati Roy

And once again, only the Small Things were said. The Big Things lurked unsaid inside. — Arundhati Roy

The truth is that it's far easier to make a bomb than to educate four hundred million people. — Arundhati Roy

crashing through the world like a falling stone. It is his color and his light. It is the vessel into which he pours — Arundhati Roy

Questions signified a vulgar display of ignorance. — Arundhati Roy

Silence hung in the air like secret loss. — Arundhati Roy

[Are we] far more comfortable with the idea of poor people killing themselves in despair than with the idea of them fighting back? — Arundhati Roy

Acceptance spells death to a writer. — Arundhati Roy

Kochu Maria, the vinegar-hearted, short-tempered, midget cook, were — Arundhati Roy

Politeness. Obedience. Loyalty. Intelligence. Courtesy. Efficiency. — Arundhati Roy

When you recreate the image of man, why repeat God's mistakes? — Arundhati Roy

Her grief grieved her. His devastated her. — Arundhati Roy

I am an artist and a writer, and I do think that one always places oneself in the picture to see where one fits. — Arundhati Roy

He folded his fear into a perfect rose. He held it out in the palm of his hand. She took it from him and put it in her hair. — Arundhati Roy

This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt. — Arundhati Roy

Humbling was a nice word, Rahel thought. Humbling along without a care in the world — Arundhati Roy

Must we behave like some damn godforsaken tribe that's just been discovered? — Arundhati Roy

A fee clarified things. Disjuncted sex from love. Needs from feelings. — Arundhati Roy

Some days he walked along the banks of the river that smelled of shit and pesticides bought with World Bank loans. — Arundhati Roy

It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that is purloined. — Arundhati Roy

For the first time in her life, Tilo felt that her body had enough room to accomodate all of its organs. — Arundhati Roy

Here they learned to Wait. To Watch. To think thoughts and not voice them. — Arundhati Roy

.. how history negotiates its terms and collects its dues from those who break its laws. — Arundhati Roy

[Internationa] Aid is just another praetorian business enterprise. — Arundhati Roy

Need was a warehouse that could accommodate a considerable amount of cruelty. — Arundhati Roy

From now on it is not dying we must fear, but living. — Arundhati Roy

In a determined reversal of her inherent nature, Kochu Maria now, as a policy, hardly ever believed anything that anybody said. — Arundhati Roy

There's no division on my bookshelf between fiction and nonfiction. As far as I'm concerned, fiction is about the truth. — Arundhati Roy

To stay quiet is as political an act as speaking out. — Arundhati Roy

Our lungs are gradually being depleted of oxygen. Perhaps it's time to use whatever breath remains in our bodies to say: Open the bloody gates. — Arundhati Roy

Sometimes there's truth in old cliches. There can be no real peace without justice. And without resistance there will be no justice. — Arundhati Roy

Going to Oxford didn't necessarily make a person clever. — Arundhati Roy

Still the Amaltas bloomed, a brilliant, defiant yellow. Each blazing summer it reached up and whispered to the hot brown sky, Fuck You. — Arundhati Roy

The war against terror is not really about terror. It's about a superpower's self-destructive impulse toward supremacy, stranglehold, global hemegony. — Arundhati Roy

That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less. — Arundhati Roy

Argentina & Iraq have been decimated by the same process with different weapons; an IMF cheque & cruise missiles. — Arundhati Roy

If we were to lose the ability to be emotional, if we were to lose the ability to be angry, to be outraged, we would be robots. And I refuse that. — Arundhati Roy

Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes. — Arundhati Roy

Dear Doctor,

If you like you can change every inch of me. I'm just a story. — Arundhati Roy

The UID is a corporate scam which funnels billions of dollars into the IT sector — Arundhati Roy

Do we need weapons to fight wars? Or do we need wars to create markets for weapons? — Arundhati Roy

There can be nothing more humiliating for a writer of fiction to have to do than restate a case that has already been made. — Arundhati Roy

Sleep came to them, quick and easy, like money to millionaires. — Arundhati Roy

Of the four things that were Possible in Human Nature, Rahel thought that Infinnate Joy sounded the saddest. — Arundhati Roy

She wondered how to un-know certain things, certain specific things that she knew but did not wish to know — Arundhati Roy

Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is peace. — Arundhati Roy

It could be argued that it began long before Christianity arrived in a boat and seeped into Kerala like tea from a teabag. — Arundhati Roy

Red ants that had a sour farty smell when they were squashed. — Arundhati Roy

Let's leave one alive so that it can be lonely. — Arundhati Roy

And there it was again. Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature. — Arundhati Roy

The way her body existed only where he touched her. The rest of her was smoke. — Arundhati Roy

Ammu quickly learned to recognize and despise the ugly face of sympathy. They ... gloated. She fought off the urge to slap them. — Arundhati Roy

Some things come with their own punishments. — Arundhati Roy

Of course, there's an alternative to terrorism: it's called justice. — Arundhati Roy

And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside. — Arundhati Roy

[b.] be prepared to be prepared. — Arundhati Roy

All three of them bonded by the certain, separate knowledge that they had loved a man to death. — Arundhati Roy

She viewed ethnic cleansing, famine and genocide as direct threats to her furniture. — Arundhati Roy

Literature is the opposite of a nuclear bomb. — Arundhati Roy

And on Ammu's road (to Age and Death) a small, sunny meadow appeared. Copper grass spangled with blue butterflies. Beyond it, an abyss. — Arundhati Roy

Only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside. — Arundhati Roy

... he remained restrained and strangely composed. It was a composure born of extreme provocation. It stemmed from a lucidity that lies beyond rage. — Arundhati Roy

Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us. — Arundhati Roy

If he touched her, he couldn't talk to her, if he loved her he couldn't leave, if he spoke he couldn't listen, if he fought he couldn't win. — Arundhati Roy

Excitement Always Leads to Tears. — Arundhati Roy

Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. — Arundhati Roy

The American way of life is not sustainable. It doesn't acknowledge that there is a world beyond America. — Arundhati Roy

The tired wisdom of knowing that what goes around eventually comes around. — Arundhati Roy

There is a war that makes us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves. — Arundhati Roy

they asked the poor what it was like to be poor, the hungry what it was like to be hungry, the homeless what it was like to be homeless. — Arundhati Roy

India does not have a problem of people grabbing share from a fixed pie. India is one of the few nations where the pie is getting bigger. — Arundhati Bhattacharya

I'm Popeye the sailor man dum dum I live in a cara-van dum dum I op-en the door And fall-on the floor I'm Popeye the sailor man dum dum — Arundhati Roy

Many people have accused me of having a romantic view, whereas I personally I feel sorry for those who have lost romance in their lives. — Arundhati Roy

Flat muscled and honey coloured. Sea secrets in his eyes. A silver raindrop in his ear. — Arundhati Roy

There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard. — Arundhati Roy

It was a time when the unthinkable became the thinkable and the impossible really happened — Arundhati Roy

Making bombs will only destroy us. It doesn't matter whether we use them or not. They will destroy us either way. — Arundhati Roy

Democracy has become Empire's euphemism for neo-liberal capitalism. — Arundhati Roy

The boat that Ammu would use to cross the river. To love by night the man her children loved by day. — Arundhati Roy

Although you know that one day you will die, you live as if you won't. — Arundhati Roy

Things can change in a day. — Arundhati Roy

I kind of resent the idea that the whole world has to be interested in the American elections. — Arundhati Roy

Non-violence is a piece of theatre. You need an audience. What can you do when you have no audience? — Arundhati Roy

The TV channels never ran out of sponsorship for their live telecasts of despair. They never ran out of despair — Arundhati Roy

There are things that can be forgotten. And things that cannot - that sit on dusty shelves like stuffed birds with baleful, sideways staring eyes. — Arundhati Roy

He gathered her into the cave of his body. (Roy,338) — Arundhati Roy

I think one of the saddest things that's happening to literature is that it's getting over-simplified by this diet of simple political ideas. — Arundhati Roy

I have truly known what it means for a writer to feel loved. — Arundhati Roy

the connection between GDP growth and jobs is a myth. — Arundhati Roy

Poverty is a crime and the poor are terrorists — Arundhati Roy

Debating Imperialism is a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What can we say? That we really miss it? — Arundhati Roy

It helps to remember that nobody likes to be managed. But everybody longs to be included. — Arundhati Subramaniam

Ammu's tears made everything that had so far seemed unreal, real. — Arundhati Roy

The American people ought to know that it is not them, but their government's policies, that are so hated. — Arundhati Roy

Change is one thing. Acceptance is another. — Arundhati Roy

Who can know from the word goodbye what kind of parting is in store for us. — Arundhati Roy

There are things that you can't do - like writing letters to a part of yourself. To your feet or hair. Or heart. — Arundhati Roy

Socrates asked the key question:
why should we be moral? — Arundhati Roy