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It is exciting to write about the present once one gets beyond the trivia of the moment. As a time to live in, as a time to think about, the present is intriguing.

Vikram Seth

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Vikram Seth
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: June 20
Librettist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Calcutta
Writing
Exciting
Time
Gets
Think
Beyond
Thinking
Present
Moment
Write
Moments
Trivia
Live
Intriguing

More quotes by Vikram Seth

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You get your inspiration - suggestions - wherever you have to, even from your mother.
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Good music is good music, but it has to be good.
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I just love music - by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.
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You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.
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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.
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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.
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I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything.
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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.
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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.
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I recall drinking sherry in California and dreaming of England, where I ate dalmoth and dreamed of Delhi. What is the purpose, I wonder, of all this restlessness? I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.
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There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy.
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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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Revision has its own peculiar pleasures and its own peculiar frustrations. The ground rules are already established the characters already exist. You don't have to bring the characters to life, but you do have to make them more convincing.
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For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.
Vikram Seth
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I want my books to sell, to be read. I'm not interested in being obscure.
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In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian.
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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.
Vikram Seth
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I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I'm not. I'm just obsessed with my work.
Vikram Seth
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I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside.
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Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth?
Vikram Seth