Arundhati Roy quotes

Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds & then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. (Arundhati Roy)
You have come to a stage where you almost have to work on yourself. You know, on finding some tranquility with which to respond to these things, because I realize that the biggest risk that many of us run is beginning to get inured to the horrors. View quote
Arundhati Roy
The American way of life is not sustainable. It doesn't acknowledge that there is a world beyond America. View quote
Arundhati Roy
He held her as though she was a gift. Given to him in love. Something still and small. Unbearably precious. View quote
Arundhati Roy
I do what I do, and write what I write, without calculating what is worth what and so on. Fortunately, I am not a banker or an accountant. I feel that there is a time when a political statement needs to be made and I make it. View quote
Arundhati Roy
Another world is not only possible, she's on the way and, on a quiet day, if you listen very carefully you can hear her breathe. View quote
Arundhati Roy
If you're happy in a dream, does that count? View quote
Arundhati Roy
There is only one dream worth having...to live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead. View quote
Arundhati Roy
It's being made out that the whole point of the war was to topple the Taliban regime and liberate Afghan women from their burqas, we are being asked to believe that the U.S. marines are actually on a feminist mission. View quote
Arundhati Roy
... To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget. ... View quote
Arundhati Roy
Power is fortified not just by what it destroys, but also by what it creates. Not just by what it takes, but also by what it gives. And powerlessness reaffirmed not just by the helplessness of those who have lost, but also by the gratitude of those who have (or think they have) gained. (Arundhati Roy)
Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. View quote
Arundhati Roy
Things can change in a day. View quote
Arundhati Roy
Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Suddenly, they become the bleached bones of a story. View quote
Arundhati Roy
Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us. View quote
Arundhati Roy
Change is one thing. Acceptance is another. View quote
Arundhati Roy
It was a time when the unthinkable became the thinkable and the impossible really happened. View quote
Arundhati Roy
The invasion of Iraq will surely go down in history as one of the most cowardly wars ever fought. It was a war in which a band of rich nations, armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, rounded on a poor nation, falsely accused it of having nuclear weapons, used the United Nations to force it to disarm, then invaded it, occupied it, and are now in the process of selling it. View quote
Arundhati Roy
What came for them? Not death. Just the end of living. View quote
Arundhati Roy
The way her body existed only where he touched her. The rest of her was smoke. View quote
Arundhati Roy
Literature is the opposite of a nuclear bomb. (Arundhati Roy)
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. View quote
Arundhati Roy
When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch. View quote
Arundhati Roy
There is a war that makes us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves. View quote
Arundhati Roy
Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. View quote
Arundhati Roy