Quote

For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.

Vikram Seth

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vikram Seth
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: June 20
Librettist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Calcutta
Good
Substitute
Substitutes
Obsession
Discipline
Writer
Self

More quotes by Vikram Seth

Image
Good music is good music, but it has to be good.
Vikram Seth
Image
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.
Vikram Seth
Image
You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.
Vikram Seth
Image
In general, questions are fine you can always seize upon the parts of them that interest you and concentrate on answering those. And one has to remember when answering questions that asking questions isn't easy either, and for someone who's quite shy to stand up in an audience to speak takes some courage.
Vikram Seth
Image
In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian.
Vikram Seth
Image
I simply seem to drift. But I sort of allow the drift, because it has a kind of check - it forces me to work harder at what I'm interested in.
Vikram Seth
Image
The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else.
Vikram Seth
Image
I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.
Vikram Seth
Image
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
Image
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.
Vikram Seth
Image
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.
Vikram Seth
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
What is the difference between my life and my love? One gets me low, the other lets me go.
Vikram Seth
Image
Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music-not too much, or the soul could not sustain it-from time to time.
Vikram Seth
Image
Don't put things off till it's too late. You are the DJ of your fate.
Vikram Seth
Image
I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I'm not. I'm just obsessed with my work.
Vikram Seth
Image
And an equation is the same whether it's written in red or green ink
Vikram Seth
Image
You can talk good ideas out of existence.
Vikram Seth