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Too much of Indian writing in English, it seemed to me, consisted of middle-class people writing about other middle-class people - and a small slice of life being passed off as an authentic portrait of the country.

Aravind Adiga

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Aravind Adiga
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: October 23
Film Director
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
Madras
People
English
Consisted
Middle
Slice
Small
Portrait
Class
Portraits
Country
Authentic
Writing
Passed
Much
Indian
Life
Seemed

More quotes by Aravind Adiga

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What keeps India safe really is the heroism of millions of poor Indians who every day reject the allure of terrorism. What keeps India safe is just the courage of poor Indians, not the actions of its government.
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With their tinted windows up, the cars of the rich go like dark eggs down the roads of Delhi. Every now and then an egg will crack open a woman's hand, dazzling with gold bangles, stretches out an open window, flings an empty mineral water bottle onto the road and then the window goes up, and the egg is resealed.
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I grew up, as many Indians do, in an archipelago of tongues. My maternal grandfather, who was a surgeon in the city of Madras, was fluent in at least four languages and used each of them daily.
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Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.
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At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the west, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society.
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Inconvenience in progress, work is regretted.
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Do you know about Hanuman, sir? He was the faithful servant of the god Rama, and we worship him in our temples because he is a shining example of how to serve your masters with absolute fidelity, love, and devotion. These are the kinds of gods they have foisted on us Mr. Jiabao. Understand, now, how hard it is for a man to win his freedom in India.
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I am not an original thinker-but I am an original listener.)
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Because in this world, there is a line: on one side are the men who cannot get things done, and on the other side are the men who can. And not one in a hundred will cross that line. Will you?
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It has always been very difficult for writers to survive commercially in India because the market was so small. But that's not true at all any more. It's one of the world's fastest growing and most vibrant markets for books, especially in English.
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In a sense, being a full-time writer is less fun because there's no office to go to anymore, there's no set routine, there's no schedule. It can be quite isolating.
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Let animals live like animals let humans live like humans. That's my whole philosophy in a sentence.
Aravind Adiga
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Any good society survives on a circulation of favours.
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The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave
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Every book is a kind of struggle, and it's a miracle when it comes out.
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It's amazing. The moment you show cash, everyone knows your language.
Aravind Adiga
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When I was growing up in the south Indian city of Madras, there were only two political parties that mattered one was run by a former matinee idol, and the other was run by his former screenwriter.
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We are made mysteries to ourselves by the Rooster Coop we are locked in.
Aravind Adiga
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The book of your revolution sits in the pit of your belly, young Indian. Crap it out, and read. Instead of which, they're all sitting in front of color TVs and watching cricket and shampoo advertisements.
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An honest politician has no goodies to toss around. This limits his effectiveness profoundly, because political power in India is dispersed throughout a multi-tiered federal structure a local official who has not been paid off can sometimes stop a billion-dollar project.
Aravind Adiga