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.

Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things one could get used to.

The only dream worth having, I told her, is to dream that you will live while you're alive and die only when you're dead.

It is true that success is the most boring thing, it is tinny and brittle, failure runs deeper. Success is dangerous. I have a very complicated relationship with that word.

The writer is the midwife of understanding.

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

Human beings seem unable to live without war, but they are also unable to live without love.

When I'm outside the cities I do feel optimistic. There is such grandeur in India and so much beauty.

India's a very interesting place... there's no formal opposition, but there's genuine on-the-ground opposition.

The people who are getting rich can't imagine that the world is not a better place.

He held her as though she was a gift. Given to him in love. Something still and small. Unbearably precious.

Truly, there's no alternative to stupidity. Cretinism is the mother of fascism. I have no defence against it, really....

In India, whichever language you write in, the possibility of people not understanding irony or not understanding [remains there]. This as a writer is most terrifying!

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

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

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

That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.

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

the truth is that it's far easier to make a bomb than to educate four hundred million people.