Vikram Seth

“God save us from people who mean well.”

“All over India, all over the world, as the sun or the shadow of darkness moves from east to west, the call to prayer moves with it, and people kneel down in a wave to pray to God. Five waves...”

“Good books get praised, bad books get praised. Good books get ignored, bad books get ignored”

“Realism hasn't fallen out of favor with most people, who are interested in people's lives rather than gymnastics of style or literary trends. It's a certain kind of academic who undervalues...”

“I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature.”

“I don't read as much as people may expect. In fact, sometimes I feel that I should probably read more, but then I do believe that one of the big problems of our times is that there's too muc...”

“The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of what you know, and the other nine-tenths isn't visible and never mind if that...”

“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.”

“The point really is that a writer tends to write a book that he or she tends to write. It's as simple as that. Of course, it's important to make a living and all that, but the main impulse a...”

“My main motivation is not to get bored. I'm just hoping I get a vaguely maverick reputation.”

“I'm actually a very lazy person. Most of the time, I'm happy to sit around and stare. Or watch bad TV soaps. It's quite rare for me to get inspired by anything, but it could be something sma...”

“There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy.”

“So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.”

“If I'm compelled to do something, I don't shy away from it simply because I haven't tackled it before.”

“I am careful about fiction. A novel is not a tract or an essay. If I want to write about land reforms, or Hindu-Muslim relations, or position of women, I can do it as it affects my character...”

“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.”

“On the whole, I don't like reading long books. I'm not a fan of 'Ulysses.' And I haven't quite finished 'War and Peace.'”