Quote

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.

Vikram Seth

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Vikram Seth
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: June 20
Librettist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Calcutta
Enter
People
Basically
Fiction
Happen
Lives
Happens
Form
Gossip
Going

More quotes by Vikram Seth

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In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian.
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I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.
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I don't pick and choose subjects or settings they pick and choose me.
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To not be able to love the one you love is to have your life wrenched away.
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In life's brief game to be a winner A man must have...oh yes, above All else, of course, someone to love.
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For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.
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You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.
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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.
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The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else.
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It's not the gods But our own hearts We need to fear. The evil starts Against all odds Not there but here.
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Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river that had come down to earth so that its waters might flow over the ashes of those long dead, and that would continue to flow long after the human race had, through hatred and knowledge, burned itself out.
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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.
Vikram Seth
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I want my books to sell, to be read. I'm not interested in being obscure.
Vikram Seth
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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.
Vikram Seth
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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.
Vikram Seth
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You can talk good ideas out of existence.
Vikram Seth
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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.
Vikram Seth
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God save us from people who mean well.
Vikram Seth
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And the process of reading is such a private one. I once came into a room where a friend of mine was reading one of my books, and he clicked his tongue impatiently and shooed me off.
Vikram Seth
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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.
Vikram Seth