Novelist Quotes

Exceptions are not always the proof of the old rule; they can also be the harbinger of a new one.

Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.

He who believes in freedom of the will has never loved and never hated.

Conquer, but don't triumph.

We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.

Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.

Not what we experience, but how we perceive what we experience, determines our fate.

Little evil would be done in the world if evil never could be done in the name of good.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

In youth we learn; in age we understand.

We don't believe in rheumatism and true love until after the first attack.

I write every day when I'm at home - trying to catch up with correspondence.

When I was very young, I used to share much of what I wrote with my family, but as I got older and more self-conscious, it became a much more private process.

The book begins and ends with the visits to give the impression of a tunnel into their ancestors and family history. I believe in going backwards into the past - I felt I was digging a tunnel back to the past.

People think that because I write about India I must be trying to portray India in a way.

My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly.

Many characters in the novel are representative of types that exist in India. He represents the caste system in India with an air of superiority, the caste system in India and the people thinking that western things are better.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

I aim to tell the truth about any subject, not a romance or fantasy, not avoid the truth.

Ever since I could first write I have been doing so. When I was taught how to write and read at school, I made up my mind that this was what I love to do best and this was the world I was going to occupy.

Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book.

Someone who wants to write should make an effort to write a little something every day. Writing in this sense is the same as athletes who practice a sport every day to keep their skills honed.

India is a curious place that still preserves the past, religions, and its history. No matter how modern India becomes, it is still very much an old country.

Convictions do not imply reasons.

Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing.

A pint can't hold a quart - if it holds a pint it is doing all that can be expected of it.

Self-sacrifice which denies common sense is not a virtue. It's a spiritual dissipation.

I saw a photograph of a wedding conducted by Reverend Moon of the Unification Church. I wanted to understand this event, and the only way to understand it was to write about it.

I felt Joyce was an influence on my fiction, but in a very general way, as a kind of inspiration and a model for the beauty of language.

I embarked on my life - I didn't do anything. I don't have an explanation.