Fiction Indian Quotes & Sayings

The novel had reached its apogee with the marriage plot and had never recovered from its disappearance. In the days when success in life had depended on marriage, and marriage had depended on money, novelists had had a subject to write about. The great epics sang of war, the novel of marriage. Sexual equality, good for women, had been bad for the novel. And divorce had undone it completely. What would it matter whom Emma married if she could file for separation later? How would Isabel Archer's marriage to Gilbert Osmond have been affected by the existence of a prenup? As far as Saunders was concerned, marriage didn't mean much anymore, and neither did the novel. Where could you find the marriage plot nowadays? You couldn't. You had to read historical fiction. You had to read non-Western novels involving traditional societies. Afghani novels, Indian novels. You had to go, literarily speaking, back in time. — Jeffrey Eugenides

Do as you would be done by — Jennifer Dance

When you have power and use it for destructive purpose: you don't deserve it. — Udai Yadla

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

the influence of organised crime reaches into the economy, our politics and everyday life- dongri to dubai — S. Hussain Zaidi

Every time you think of your dad, you're
resurrecting him. Why shouldn't he continue to live
in this world while resting in the other? — Clyde DeSouza

She lifts her eyes, and there is Death in the corner, but not like a king with his iron crown, as the epics claimed. Why, it is a giant brush loaded with white paint. It descends upon her with gentle suddenness, obliterating the shape of the world. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I don't put much stock in remembering things. Being able to forget is a superior skill. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

You are a girl, Shirin. Girls don't run around naked.'Why?'They just don't. — Renita D'Silva

What is the difference between a dream and its memory? — Sukanya Venkatraghavan

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

They dressed for dinner and followed the strict discipline of upper class English families. The next morning they took me with them for the county fox hunt. Since I could not ride, I asked to be excused. But I did get to see the ritual of dress, the hierarchy observed among hunting types, the blowing of horns, the handling of beagles, a poor fox being run to death and having its tail (brush) cut off. Having achieved their object, glasses of sherry were passed round like prasad after a religious service. — Khushwant Singh

We may not have sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, but we do have democracy. — Aravind Adiga

She liked the way a ray of mild autumn sun infiltrating the thick cluster of trees caught a reddish orange leaf swirling in the wind and transformed it golden yellow. She liked that it wasn't a leaf she recognised, that she could name or associate with her past. — Renita D'Silva

Thomas slammed his fist on the table, sending eating utensils flying. "Shameful! It is downright shameful that so-called men of God would use religion to manipulate people."
--from Prairie Grace when Thomas learns how the Indian agents and others are stealing from Native Americans — Marilyn Bay Wentz

Where are the coconut trees bowing allegiance to the wind, the wide open spaces, the verdant green fields? — Renita D'Silva

There are still some terrible cliches in the presentation of Indian fiction. The lotus flower. The hennaed hands. In mainland Europe, people still slap these images on my books and I go bananas. — Hari Kunzru

I wash the clothes, rinse them and then scrub them again. Will that square little box do that? I am not using any fancy machines when my hands will do. — Renita D'Silva

Sometimes, it is easier to leave things as they are, rather than to fight, go against the flow. — Renita D'Silva

There's a great drought in my village. People are dying. The price of rice and pulses has rocketed. There is no water anywhere. And here, people are complaining about the rain ... — Renita D'Silva

There's an explosion of Indian fiction of all kinds, from military thrillers to chicklit. I think that's exciting. — Hari Kunzru

She was a sleuth and sleuths had to follow rules. 'Get to the point; don't allow the subject to digress' was one of them — Renita D'Silva

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

It's difficult to fight when you have no idea who your enemy is. — Sudha Kuruganti

It was a witty fiction of the poets, that when Mercury had cast Argus into a sleep and with an enchanted wand closed his eyes, he then killed him. When Satan has by his witcheries lulled men asleep in sloth, then he destroys them. Some report that while the crocodile sleeps with its mouth open, the Indian rat gets into its belly and eats up its entrails. So while men sleep in security they are devoured. — Thomas Watson

What better hiding place than an old, woodlice-ridden album of photographs! — Renita D'Silva

If he slept, he dreamt of the woman with the icy white irises. She exploded planes, swallowed oceans and crumpled skies
in her palm in his dreams. Sometimes she and the green-eyed girl were one. At other times, the green-eyed girl was alone, a gaping hole where her heart should have been. At all times he could hear the woman's cold, low laughter. It swept across his consciousness like a hailstorm.
When he woke up, he thought he was going mad. — Sukanya Venkatraghavan

Every act of goodness it's born from our desire to be happy. — Udai Yadla

A community that engages readers and culturally enabled people to connect, support and harness intellectual and cultural capabilities. — Ashwin Sanghi

You have not failed until you accept your failure. — Udai Yadla

Every happy moments looks perfect till it gets messy — Sheeja Jose

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

When you stop complaining about others for not helping you and focus on your efforts; there's no stopping you. — Udai Yadla

Push away the past, that vessel in which all emotions curdle to regret. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Believe in your greatness. Because what you believe is what you become. — Udai Yadla

Have you been reading those books that clueless illiterate Duja in charge of the lending library lets you borrow?' 'No, Ma.' 'Then what put you in mind of devils possessing nuns to take over the church? — Renita D'Silva

Thank people who help you because they make you happy. Thank people who don't help you because they make you strong. — Udai Yadla

What use is status if you have no one to share it with, Dad? — Renita D'Silva

Bela had thought she knew what love felt like, but when she saw Sanjay at the airport after six long months, her heart gave a great, hurtful lurch, as though it were trying to leap out of her body to meet him. This, she thought. This is it. But it was only part of the truth. She would learn over the next years that love can feel a lot of different ways, and sometimes it can hurt a lot more. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Even the Sun shed tears once in a while — Sheeja Jose

You put cow dung on my face?' 'Every day religiously until you were three. Why else do you think your skin is so clear? — Renita D'Silva

I watched the rows and rows of chappals left by devotees outside the Hindu temple and wondered if the homeless boys who sometimes steal our chickens ever steal them, and if they do, are they punished, and if so by whom? — Renita D'Silva

Without love, we would not comprehend compassion.
- Govinda Shauri — Krishna Udayasankar

Don't care about success or failure. Keep doing what you love. Success will follow. — Udai Yadla

If Allah has willed it that way ... He must have better plans for you child ... — K. Hari Kumar

There was no audience for my books. The Indians didn't regard me as an Indian and North Americans couldn't conceive of me of a North American writer, not being white and brought up on wheat germ. My fiction got lost. — Bharati Mukherjee

Fall into the cavern of my mind, and together there, we will dine. — Brad Jensen

Would you like to come in?" I said. My hands were sweaty. Inside my chest an ocean heaved and crashed and heaved again.
"I would," he said. I saw his Adam's apple jerk as he swallowed. "Thank you."
I was distracted by that thank you. We had moved past the language of formality long ago. It was strange to relearn it with each other. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

When it's possible for you to dream, it's not impossible to achieve. — Udai Yadla

What am I doing here, Reena? Why am I dancing to the tunes of that old hag?'You are saving your family. — Renita D'Silva

You don't live in luxury! You are relegated to sleep in the little store room behind the kitchen with the cockroaches and rats and are at the mercy of Mrs. Gupta,' Reena was indignant. 'It's five-star accommodation compared to a mud hut. — Renita D'Silva

When you treat your failures as lessons, you can never fail. — Udai Yadla

I am not interested in producing fiction for Indian television at all, the reason being that I don't understand the medium. I can be a judge or a host; I can do that as an individual. But to produce TV content, you have to know the game. — Karan Johar

But he's an untouchable, Shirin.' 'He's my Untouchable Prince Charming, then. Only I am allowed to touch him. — Renita D'Silva

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

Mistakes are not bad; excuses are. — Udai Yadla

Whole life is a search for beauty. But, when the beauty is found inside, the search ends and a beautiful journey begins. — Harshit Walia

That was when Angel Wells became a fiction writer, whether he knew it or not. That's when he learned how to make the make-believe matter to him more than real life mattered to him; that's when he learned how to paint a picture that was not real and never would be real, but in order to be believed at all- even on a sunny Indian summer day- it had to be better made and seem more real than real; it had to sound at least possible. — John Irving

What wouldn't my people give for a few bites of the biryani she ordered me to throw away yesterday because she said it smelt? — Renita D'Silva

Failure is the greatest teacher. — Udai Yadla

It's beyond your consciousness that your soul lingers with the person you love and hence your mood will affect the one you love. This is the reason why you sometimes sense your mood changing mysteriously with no reason. — Udai Yadla

The Great Socialist himself is said to have embezzled one billion rupees from the Darkness, and transferred that money into a bank account in a small, beautiful country in Europe full of white people and black money. — Aravind Adiga

Oh Pia, I feel GOOD! Fully recovered!' he always says in a dazzling tone that tells everyone within a ten-kilometre radius that he's not. — Aditi Mathur Kumar

Every act of goodness is born from our desire to be happy. — Udai Yadla

Everything in this world happens with a purpose. You are born in this world with a purpose, you are chosen by purpose. — Udai Yadla

The time is ripe for young Indian authors writing in the English language. — Anurag Shourie

Every family has secrets, Reena, and they're there for a reason. — Renita D'Silva

I meet his eyes and he arches his eyebrows. He knows. He knows I don't really like Deepak. He knows I've been intending to break up with him for the last two months. He knows I would rather be with him. He knows all my deepest darkest secrets. That psychic velvet voiced God! Okay, I'm being irrational. He just raised his eyebrows. It's nothing. Maybe it's a habit. He probably raises his eyebrows hourly. — Anjali Kirpalani

I uttered the wisest thing that you must say to an angry woman - "I'm sorry. — Mita Jain