Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Quotes & Sayings

Sometimes what is 'real' because it takes place in the physical world, like 9/11, is so unreal on the level of the soul. Then other things, which in terms of the physical world seem so magical and unbelievable, on the level of the soul seem very real. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I write in my study, where I also have my prayer altar. I believe that keeps me focused and gives me positive energy and reminds me that I'm merely the instrument of greater creative forces. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The story hangs in the night air between them. It is very latem, and if father or daugther stepped to the window, tehyw ould see the Suktara, star of the impending dawn, hanging low in the sky. But they keep sitting at the table, each thinking of the story differently, as teller and listener always must. In the mind of each, different images swirl up and fall away, and each holds on to a different part of the story, thinking it the most important. And if each were to speak what it meant, they would say things so different you would not know it wa sthe same story they were speaking of. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

What is the nature of life?
Life is lines of dominoes falling.
One thing leads to another, and then another, just like you'd planned. But suddenly a Domino gets skewed, events change direction, people dig in their heels, and you're faced with a situation that you didn't see coming, you who thought you were so clever. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Each book is a separate entity for me. When I'm writing it, I enter its world and inhabit its vocabulary. I forget, as it were, that I ever wrote anything else. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The mark of a wise man is that he changes his mind when he sees mistake. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Wisdom that isn't distilled in our own crucible can't help us. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

India lends itself well to fictionalization, but ultimately, it all depends on the writer's imagination. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Looking down from the heights of Maslow's pyramid, it seems inconceivable to us that someone could actually prefer bread to freedom. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

In the white marble hall of the hotel, I'm waltzing with Rajat. The music is a river and we're dancing in it. It winds against our bodies, muscular as a serpent. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The ancient world is always accessible, no matter what culture you come from. I remember when I was growing up in India and I read the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey.' — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Girls have to be toughened so they can survive a world that presses harder on women. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Tomorrow is another day. I've got plenty of things to worry about right now. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

She had always been this way: interested-quite unnecessarily, some would say-in the secrets of strangers. When flying, she always chose a window seat so that when the plane took off or landed, she could look down on the tiny houses and imagine the lives of the people who inhabited them. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

When your heart is crusted over with your own pain, it is easy to feel little for others. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I was very fortunate that all my holidays I'd spend with my grandfather, experiencing a much more traditional way of life and listening to these wonderful stories, which I now feel are such an important part of Indian thinking. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

In Western dream interpretation, it's often connected to psychotherapy and looking at the personality and what's going on in your life. In Eastern dream telling, many times there's this idea of a special gift. And without this gift, you could study and study, but you'd never really become an effective dream teller. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I work very hard at creating complex characters, a mix of positives and negatives. They are all flawed. I believe flaws are almost universal, and they help us understand, sympathise and, paradoxically, feel closer to such characters. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

And under it all, earth waited with her lead-filled veins, impatient to shrug herself clean. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

But truth, when it's being lived, is less glamorous than our imaginings. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Because it is the lot of mothers to remember what no one else cares to, Mrs. Dutta thinks. To tell them over and over until they are lodged, perforce, in family lore. We are the keepers of the heart's dusty corners. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

America is a country formed by diverse communities from different countries. Overall, the country is very hospitable and gives opportunities to grow. Saying that, I'd also say I'm not a 'white' immigrant; a South Asian's experience is different than, say, a European immigrant's. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I guess there's a lot we hope for that never happens. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I have a variety of readers from across the diasporic community, not just from South Asia. I like to write large stories that include all of us - about common and cohesive experiences which bring together many immigrants, their culture shocks, transformations, concepts of home and self in a new land. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Doesn't the imagination always exaggerate - or diminish - truth? — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

As I've written more, and as other Indian American voices have grown around me, I strive harder to find experiences that are unique yet a meaningful and resonant part of the American story. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Your childhood hunger is the one that never leaves you. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Dissolving differences has always been an important motive for my writing, right from 'The Mistress of Spices.' — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I had friends who died in the 9/11 tragedy; some of my friends lost family members in the aftermath of Godhra. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I realise that a novel and a film are different mediums. As artistes, we need to respect other artistes. It also needs a lot of courage to take risks to experiment and interpret known literary works. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I started writing after the death of my grandfather - memories, poems, etc. It was very personal; for years I did not share my writing with anyone. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Good daughters are fortunate lamps, brightening the family's name. Wicked daughters are firebrands, blackening the family's fame. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Hi mam I am Divya studying 2nd year English I am doing research about you so please tell me the relation of Anand in Conch series which compared to foreign culture — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I hate it when people throw away food - I've seen too many hungry people. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power, and its weakness. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Asif Ali maneuvers the gleaming Mercedes down the labyrinthine lanes of Old Kolkata with consummate skill, but his passengers do not notice how smoothly he avoids potholes, cows and beggars, how skilfully he sails through aging yellow lights to get the Bose family to their destination on time. This disappoints Asif only a little. In his six years of chauffeuring the rich and callous, he has realized that, to them, servants are invisible. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.
'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Ebb and flow, ebb and flow, our lives. Is that why we're fascinated by the steadfastness of stars? The water reaches my calves. I begin the story of the Pleiades, women transformed into birds so Swift and bright that no man could snare them. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Each desire in the world is different, as is each love. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I liked his voice, rich and unself-conscious even when he forgot words and hummed to fill in the gap. What I didn't understand, I imagined, and thus it became a love song. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

But maybe as I get older, I begin to see beauty where I least expected it before. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Each person is distinct, separate. That ultimately we are each alone — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I came from a traditional family, and it was an exciting but challenging transition to move to America and live on my own. The world around me was suddenly so different. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Danger will come upon us when it will. We can't stop it. We can only try to be prepared. There's no point in looking ahead to that danger and suffering its effects even before it comes to us. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

But inside loss there can be gain, too,like the small silver spider Bela had discovered one dewy morning, curled asleep at the center of a rose. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I took a little break after 'The Palace of Illusions' to clear my head. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

She who sows vengeance must reap its bloody fruit. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Sometimes I wonder if there is such a thing as reality, an objective and untouched nature of being. Or if all that we encounter has already been changed by what we had imagined it to be. If we have dreamed it into being. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Once I heard my mother say that each of us lives in a separate universe, one we have dreamed into being. We love pople when their dream coincides with ours, the way two cutout designs laid one on top of the other might match. But dream worlds are not static like cutouts; sooner or later they change shape, leading to misunderstanding, loneliness and loss of love. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

You could also call it waking,' Krishna continues. 'Or intermission, as one scene in a play ends and the next hasn't yet begun. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I find that it's really important for me to imagine characters and situations. That allows me a lot of freedom. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

She did understand about sacrificing values for the sake of love. It was a lesson all mothers had to memorize. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I've long been interested in the tale-within-a-tale phenomenon. I'm familiar with many tales which use this framework or the device of many people in one place, telling their stories, or multiple storytellers commenting on each others' stories with their own. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

There was an unexpected freedom in
finding out that one wasn't as important as one had always assumed! — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

To me, characters are at the heart of great literature. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I am a Hindu, brought up mostly in India. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Truth, like diamond, has many facets. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Fennel, which is the spice for Wednesdays, the day of averages, of middle-aged people ... Fennel ... smelling of changes to come. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A kshatriya woman's highest purpose in life is to support the warriors in her life: her father, brother, husband and sons. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Mahabharata might have been a great and heroic battle, but there are no winners. The losers, of course, lose. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

My mother clutches at the collar of my shirt. I rub her back and feel her tears on my neck. It's been decades since our bodies have been this close. It's an odd sensation, like a torn ligament knitting itself back, lumpy and imperfect, usable as long as we know not to push it too hard. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Even the wisest don't know what's hidden in the depths of their being — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

It's different for different people, and for a woman it's important to look as good she wants to look. But you don't need to do it for someone else or to impress some male out there. You do it for your own sake. You wear what makes you feel good, you put make-up and jewellery - whatever gives you self-confidence. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The power of a man is like a bull's charge, while the power of a woman moves aslant, like a serpent seeking its prey. Know the particular properties of your power. Unless you use it correctly, it won't get you what you want. His words perplexed me. Wasn't power singular and simple? In the world that I knew, men just happened to have more of it. (I hoped to change this.) — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

She lifts a bowl of kheer and her thoughts, flittering like dusty sparrows in a brown back alley, turn a sudden kingfisher blue. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I moved here when I was 20 to go to college. After I moved here, I became much more aware of the importance of the culture and literature to my life. Sometimes when you're immersed in something, you just don't notice it very much. Moving away makes you appreciate your culture. Living here, I've thought more and more about India, and what being Indian-American means to me. And it's made me incorporate things from Indian literature into my own writing. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

As I remember my grandfather and those Christmas mornings he gave for a little girl's pleasure, I know that often a big life starts with doing small things. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

'The Mahabharata,' which inspired my novel 'Palace of Illusions,' also has many stories embedded within the main tale. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A well-meaning man, Dhai Ma liked to say, is more dangerous because he believes in the rightness of what he does. Give me an honest rascal any day! — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

My favorite part was when my grandfather and I would make a special trip to Firpo's Bakery for red and green Christmas cookies and fruitcake studded with the sweetest cherries I've ever tasted. Usually Firpo's was too expensive for our slim budget, but Christmas mornings they gave a discount to any children who came in. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I think writers from both East and West have long been fascinated by the ancient tales and the opportunity to reinterpret them. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I feel I can express the nuances of the Bengali lifestyle and ways of thinking better than other cultures. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Made to the other women when I joined them at night. The pleasures that arise from sense-objects are bound to end, and thus they are only sources of pain. Don't get attached to them. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

In community work, you reach some people, but in writing, I can reach many more people, not only in exploring issues of domestic violence, but also by showing the importance of strong women in communities. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

All of us groping in caverns, our fingertips raw against stone, searching for that slight crack, the edge of a door opening into love. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

By the time we're adults, our ideas have solidified. So I wanted to write for a younger audience, who would perhaps love heroes from other cultures. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Who held his cries in until red swam behind his eyelids like bleeding stars. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I am buoyant and expansive and uncontainable
but I always was so, only I never knew it! — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Just as we cast off worn clothes and wear new ones, when the time arrives, the soul casts off the body and finds a new one to work out its karma. Therefore the wise grieve neither for the living nor the dead. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Aren't we all pawns in the hands of time, the greatest player of them all? — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I have to believe in possibility. How else can we bear the enormous weight of life? — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

If it is good literature, the reader and the writer will connect. It's inevitable. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Looking back, I could not point to one special time and say, There! That's what is amazing. We can change completely and not recognize it. We think terrible events have made us into stone. But love slips in like a chisel - and suddenly it is an ax, breaking us into pieces from the inside. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Ah, now I have learned how deep in the human heart vanity lies, vanity which is the other face of the fear of being unloved. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The wind blows through him, cleansing. Salt and distance, smell of the deep. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

No, Ashok. Love is not a tap. It flows and flows like blood from a wound, and you can die of it. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I broke the first rule, the unwritten one, meant not just for warriors but all of us: I took love and used it as a balm to soothe my ego. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I have a lot of respect and love for children's books. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

After 9/11, there was so much distress in America that it led to an inter-cultural breakdown. Some of our communities were targeted. Many of our adults shut themselves off from other cultures. I tried to bring children of Indian and other cultures together in my literature. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

O exhilaration, I thought. To be lifted up through the eye of chaos, to balance breath-stopped on the edge of nothing. And the plunge that would follow, the shattering of my matchstick body to smithereens, the bones flying free as foam, the heart finally released. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

After September 11, 2001, I was feeling like I really wanted more understanding between cultures. It seemed to me that so much of what happened on September 11 was because people didn't understand each other and were suspicious of each other. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The bird began to carry them to a new life in a new land. We'll be happy ever after, the queen wanted to whisper to her daughter as they flew, but she knew that was not true. Life never is that way. And so instead she held her daughter in silence, heart to heart, and as they traveled each heart drew on the other's strength, so that when they reached their destination they would be ready. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A dream is a telegram from the hidden world ... Only a fool or an illiterate person ignores it. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

One of the things that I am learning is that each generation will have its own negotiations with identity. And one generation can not necessarily help the other generation with it. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

In many immigrant families, the parents are just talking and talking about the home country until the children are like, 'Oh, don't tell us any more.' — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

How pride had kept them from admitting their mistakes - and — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I love visual art. I painted for many years when I was younger. I have studied modern/contemporary Indian art a bit and am very impressed with the talent in India. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

We even had a different word for Christmas in my language, Bengali: Baradin, which literally meant 'big day.' — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

After the fire, when I'd tried to express my gratitude for their kindness to our customers, they'd been awkward, uncomfortable. My father had had to explain to me that giving thanks is not a common practice in India.
'Then how do you know if people appreciated what you did?' I'd asked.
'Do you really need to know?' my father had asked back. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I want people to be sensitive about how women feel and think. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni