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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.

Vikram Seth

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Vikram Seth
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: June 20
Librettist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Calcutta
Years
Novel
Enormously
Life
Cases
Economist
Happy
Distracted
Found
Novels
Many
Finally
Feel
Spent
Feels
Case
Writing
Poetry
Metier

More quotes by Vikram Seth

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Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth?
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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.
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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.
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So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
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In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian.
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Every object strives for its proper place. A book seeks to be near its truest admirer. Just as this helpless moth seeks to be near the candle that infatuates him.
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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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I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books.
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I am certainly not allergic to causes - particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.
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.
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Boredom provides a stronger inclination to write than anything.
Vikram Seth
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I'm not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.
Vikram Seth
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I just love music - by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.
Vikram Seth
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Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person's power. Be just to yourself.
Vikram Seth
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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
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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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All you who sleep tonight Far from the ones you love, No hand to left or right, An emptiness above-- Know that you aren't alone. The whole world shares your tears, Some for two nights or one, And some for all your years.
Vikram Seth
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My eyes close. I am here and not here. A waking nap? A flight to the end of the galaxy and perhaps a couple of billion light-years beyond?
Vikram Seth
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Everyone sort of sees his own life and times as being ephemeral. One thinks that everything good or important that happened, happened in the past. But I think that seeing scenes that you are used to, but with the heightening effects of poetry, perhaps makes you value your life and times more than you might otherwise do.
Vikram Seth
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I want my books to sell, to be read. I'm not interested in being obscure.
Vikram Seth