First, I was so dazzled and besotted by India. People said the poverty was biblical, and I'm afraid that was my attitude, too. It's terribly easy to get used to someone else's poverty if you're living a middle-class life in… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
The older books were quite light-hearted. But I think most of my novels do end on a deep note of pessimism. Shadows seem to be closing in. The final conclusion isn't that life is wonderful and everything is bright and… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
I only really woke up in India. It was my first experience of plenty, strangely enough, because everything in England was rationed. I loved… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
Film is not like a book; it's not a writer's baby at all. So many people have put in their talent, by that time… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
The misfortune to be born when I was, where I was. That was a piece of bad luck. — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
I always find the first thing that really bothers me when I start a screenplay is, I have to find a different form. You… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
I never really had any close friends in India, and I felt a terrible loneliness and isolation for many years. Westernized Indians don't like… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
First, I was so dazzled and besotted by India. People said the poverty was biblical, and I'm afraid that was my attitude, too. It's… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
Perhaps I'm just fickle by nature and get tired of countries the way other women do of husbands or lovers. — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
All my early books are written as if I were Indian. In England, I had started writing as if I were English; now I… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
I am dissatisfied with everything I have ever written and regard it all only as a preparation for that one work which probably I… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
I'm not interested in who am I. I'm interested in what's gone, the disinheritance, what I've been able to become or learn or fuse… — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
Westernized Indians don't like my books and I tend not to like westernized Indians - so we're quits. — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Copy Share Image
