We often have an exaggerated sense of what nonprofits and governments are doing to help the poor, but the really inspiring thing is how much the poor are doing to help themselves. — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
As a reporter, you know the tropes of how stories on poverty work in any country. A reporter will go to an NGO and say, "Tell me about the good work that you're doing and introduce me to the poor… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
“In places where government priorities and market imperatives create a world so capricious that to help a neighbor is to risk your ability to… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
“The forces of justice had finally come to Annawadi. That the beneficiaries were horses was a source of bemusement to Sunil and the road… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
“For years, Asha had hoped that her daughter wouldn’t guess about the men. Now she wished she had raised Manju to be worldly enough… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
“What was unfolding in Mumbai was unfolding elsewhere, too. In the age of global market capitalism, hopes and grievances were narrowly conceived, which blunted… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
I was spending a lot of time in Mumbai after I met my husband, who is Indian, and while parts of the city were… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
One thing that was very clear to me is that the young people in a place like Annawadi aren't tripping on caste the way… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
“Besides, this was the gentle-going hour in which he hated Annawadi least. The pale sun lent the sewage lake a sparkling silver cast, and… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
There's some way in which we would prefer not to see very clearly the immense gifts and intelligence of some of the people who… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
“No onlooker asked, Why fix a house when the airport authority might demolish it? Almost everyone here improved his hut when he was able,… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
Everyone in Annawadi talks like this: 'Oh, I will make my child a doctor, a lawyer, and he will make us rich'. It's vanity,… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
“Like most scavengers, Sunil knew how he appeared to the people who frequented the airport: shoeless, unclean, pathetic. By winter’s end, he had defended… — Katherine Boo Copy Share Image
