Vikram Seth quotes - page 2

I simply seem to drift. But I sort of allow the drift, because it has a kind of check - it forces me to work harder at what I'm interested in. (Vikram Seth)
Dear though the reader might be, I'd be silly to cater to what the reader wanted. View quote
Vikram Seth
I don't pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me. View quote
Vikram Seth
Fiction basically is a form of gossip where you want to enter other people's lives, the lives of people you don't know, and you want to know what's going to happen to them. View quote
Vikram Seth
There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy. View quote
Vikram Seth
You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only. View quote
Vikram Seth
Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a job in a bank and decide to paint, like Krishan Khanna? They want to convey something. View quote
Vikram Seth
I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature. View quote
Vikram Seth
In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian. View quote
Vikram Seth
You have to learn a few things, which you do along the way, but basically, poetry is a matter of the ear. Iambic pentameters or what constitutes a stanza comes naturally - your ears will know. View quote
Vikram Seth
I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside. (Vikram Seth)
So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English. View quote
Vikram Seth
The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else. View quote
Vikram Seth
You get your inspiration - suggestions - wherever you have to, even from your mother. View quote
Vikram Seth
I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated. View quote
Vikram Seth
I certainly think its very important that writers as citizens - not necessarily as writers, but just as ordinary citizens - should talk about things that matter to them. View quote
Vikram Seth
I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I'm not. I'm just obsessed with my work. View quote
Vikram Seth
In a painting, you can't make out whether the artist painted the left eye before the right eye. In Chinese calligraphy, you can see the progression of the artist's stroke. View quote
Vikram Seth
I rarely listen to music while writing. If I don't like it, it bothers me, and if I like it, it absorbs me so much I can't write. View quote
Vikram Seth
I want my books to sell, to be read. I'm not interested in being obscure. View quote
Vikram Seth
I tend to follow a scattershot approach to reading a lot of very diverse subjects interest me, and I'm quite happy to read stuff on any of them. (Vikram Seth)
I spent many years of my life as an economist and demographer. I was finally distracted by writing my novels and poetry. I'm enormously happy that was the case. I feel that with writing I have found my metier. View quote
Vikram Seth
Those books of mine that are remunerative - I'm not talking about poetry here - take years to write, and I am never sure they'll be successful. So writing is a risk in more senses than one. View quote
Vikram Seth
I don't think people give Indian society enough credit. We may not like to talk much about things but we do, basically, want to live and let live. View quote
Vikram Seth