On the whole, I don't like reading long books. I'm not a fan of 'Ulysses.' And I haven't quite finished 'War and… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside. — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
After 'A Suitable Boy,' I didn't write anything, not even a short story. I thought to myself: 'I ought to start writing.'… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Those books of mine that are remunerative - I'm not talking about poetry here - take years to write, and I am… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
I don't want to talk too much about the nitty-gritty of writing. It's rather like a pressure cooker with a certain amount… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Do not write if there is no tremendous urge to do so. At the heart, there must be an inspiration or muse… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Fiction basically is a form of gossip where you want to enter other people's lives, the lives of people you don't know,… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
I know from an editor's point of view or a publisher's point of view it's easier to slot me into a particular… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
The fact is that at different stages of your life, and under the influence of different inspirations, you write different things. The… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
But I too hate long books: the better, the worse. If they're bad they merely make me pant with the effort of… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
I am careful about fiction. A novel is not a tract or an essay. If I want to write about land reforms,… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
The point really is that a writer tends to write a book that he or she tends to write. It's as simple… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Revision has its own peculiar pleasures and its own peculiar frustrations. The ground rules are already established; the characters already exist. You… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Of course, I have to consider that I've written a lot of prose, but I do in my heart think of myself… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Realism hasn't fallen out of favor with most people, who are interested in people's lives rather than gymnastics of style or literary trends. It's… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside. — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
It's not the gods But our own hearts We need to fear. The evil starts Against all odds Not there but here. — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
“But what should I do?' Varun was saying. 'I'm not good for anything.' 'Write a book! Pull a rickshaw! Live! Don't make excuses,' said… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
“In a clear brook With joyful haste The whimsical trout Shot past me like an arrow I play the line of the song, I… — Vikram Seth Copy Share 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… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
The problem with too beautiful a view is that it's alright for the mulling stage. But for the writing stage, you want to be… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
“Romantic retrospect aside, the night spent in the truck is distinctly unpleasant. We are cramped and cold. The much-vaunted heating of the truck is… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth? — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
“Well, what do you think? Avanti?" "Avanti," cries everyone, and, after a few quick re-tunings of our instruments, and re-initialisings of our hearts, we… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
Behind every door on every ordinary street, in every hut in every ordinary village in this middling planet of a trivial star, such riches… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
