Kiran Desai

“How could anything be the same? The red of blood lay over the market road in slick pools mingled with a yellow…

— Kiran Desai

When I was growing up the publishing world seemed so far away. When my mother wrote a book, she would look up…

— Kiran Desai

“Year by year, his life wasn't amounting to anything at all...And yet, another part of him had expanded: his self-consciousness, his self-pity…

— Kiran Desai

Why couldn't she be part of that family? rent a room in someone else's life.

— Kiran Desai

In India, if you are from the elite, dogs are extremely important. The breed of the dog indicates your wealth, that you…

— Kiran Desai

I don't think you can write according to a set of rules and laws; every writer is so different.

— Kiran Desai

A man wasn't equal to an animal, not one particle of him. Human life was stinking corrupt, and meanwhile there were beautiful…

— Kiran Desai

“But the child shouldn't be blamed for the father's crime, she tried to reason with herself, then. But should the child therefore…

— Kiran Desai

“Biju stepped out of the airport into the Calcutta night, warm, mammalian. His feet sank into dust winnowed to softness at his…

— Kiran Desai

Writing, for me, means humility. It’s a process that involves fear and doubt, especially if you’re writing honestly.

— Kiran Desai

“That very afternoon the police arrived at Cho Oyu in a line of toad-colored jeeps that appeared through the moving static of…

— Kiran Desai

The publishing world is very timid. Readers are much braver.

— Kiran Desai

“The judge got down on his knees, and he prayed to God, he, Jemubhai Popatlal the agnostic, who had made a long…

— Kiran Desai

New York is a lovely city. It is an easy city to go back to and an easy city to leave. Every…

— Kiran Desai

She'd have to propel herself into the future by whatever means possible or she'd be trapped forever in a place whose times…

— Kiran Desai

This way of leaving your family for work had condemned them over several generations to have their hearts always in other places,…

— Kiran Desai

“The five peaks of Kanchenjunga turned golden with the kind of luminous light that made you feel, if briefly, that truth was…

— Kiran Desai

The Indian diaspora is a wonderful place to write from, and I am lucky to be part of it.

— Kiran Desai

“Don't be scared, puppy dog, little frog, little duck, duckie dog. It's just rain.”

— Kiran Desai

“He wasn't a bad person. He didn't want to fight. The trouble was that he'd tried to be part of the larger…

— Kiran Desai

“Thus Sampath was gradually provided with all sorts of comforts and, the more elaborate his living arrangements, the happier he was. He…

— Kiran Desai

Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss?

— Kiran Desai

“All of the third-world flights docked here, families waiting days for their connections, squatting on the floor in big bacterial clumps, and…

— Kiran Desai

“All day, the colours had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed…

— Kiran Desai

But then, how could you have any self-respect knowing that you didn't believe in anything exactly? How did you embrace what was…

— Kiran Desai