Rohinton Mistry

“the secret of survival was to balance hope and despair”

— Rohinton Mistry

“But since the world is imperfect, we must put blinders on the senses.”

— Rohinton Mistry

“this was an outstanding family subject in our real life.”

— Rohinton Mistry

In the end, it’s all a question of balance.

— Rohinton Mistry

So we tell the same story, over and over. Just the details are different

— Rohinton Mistry

The whole quilt is much more important than any single square.

— Rohinton Mistry

The carnage upon the chessboard of life, left wounded humans in its wake

— Rohinton Mistry

Lately you are brooding too much about rights. Give up this dangerous habit.

— Rohinton Mistry

“independence came at a high price: a debt with a payment schedule of hurt and regret.”

— Rohinton Mistry

You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them, sometimes you have to use your failures as…

— Rohinton Mistry

If there was an abundance of misery in the world, there was also sufficient joy, yes - as long as one knew…

— Rohinton Mistry

“There is always hope – hope enough to balance our despair. Or we would be lost.”

— Rohinton Mistry

The Law is a grim, unsmiling thing. Not Justice, though. Justice is witty and whimsical and kind and caring.

— Rohinton Mistry

Hahnji, mister, you must be patient. Before you can name that corner, our future must become past.

— Rohinton Mistry

“You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end it’s all a question of balance.”

— Rohinton Mistry

“The human face has limited space. If you fill it with laughter there will be no room for crying.”

— Rohinton Mistry

“used to. But now I prefer to think that God is a giant quiltmaker. With an infinite variety of designs. And the…

— Rohinton Mistry

Birth and death - what could be more monstrous than that? We like to deceive ourselves and call it wondrous and beautiful…

— Rohinton Mistry

“And then there were those who pretended their emotions were bigger and grander than anyone else’s. A little annoyance they acted out…

— Rohinton Mistry

I met my wife when we were both 19 or 20, at a music school where she was taking voice and piano…

— Rohinton Mistry

“That's the secret - to distract the senses. Have I told you my theory about them? I think that our sight, smell,…

— Rohinton Mistry

“...I always took the rearmost seat in the classroom - it gave me a good view of things. And I must confess,…

— Rohinton Mistry

“You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as…

— Rohinton Mistry

“In twenty-four years of proofreading, flocks of words flew into my head through the windows of my soul. Some of them stayed…

— Rohinton Mistry

What an unreliable thing is time--when I want it to fly, the hours stick to me like glue. And what a changeable…

— Rohinton Mistry

...there was another, gorier parturition, when two nations incarnated out of one. A foreigner drew a magic line on a map and…

— Rohinton Mistry

But nobody ever forgot anything, not really, though sometimes they pretended, when it suited them. Memories were permanent. Sorrowful ones remained sad…

— Rohinton Mistry

“Curious, he thought, how, if you knew a person long enough, he could elicit every kind of emotion from you, every possible…

— Rohinton Mistry

...loss is essential, loss is part and parcel of that necessary calamity called life. Mind you, I'm not complaining. Thanks to some…

— Rohinton Mistry

What folly made young people, even those in middle age, think they were immortal? How much better, their lives, if they could…

— Rohinton Mistry

“There must be a lot of duplication in our country’s laws," said Dukhi. "Every time there are elections, they talk of passing…

— Rohinton Mistry

“He winced at her efforts to mollify him. Why didn't she say she was disgusted with his behaviour, with his long absence,…

— Rohinton Mistry

“When a culture vansihes, humanity is the loser.”

— Rohinton Mistry

“Time, the ultimate grandmaster that could never be checkmated. There was no way out of its distended belly.”

— Rohinton Mistry

There didn't seem to her any harm in it, and the make-believe was so comforting.

— Rohinton Mistry

Remembering bred its own peculiar sorrow. It seemed so unfair: that time should render both sadness and happiness into a source of…

— Rohinton Mistry

Black money is so much a part of our white economy, a tumour in the centre of the brain - try to…

— Rohinton Mistry

World can be a bewildering place,and dreams and ambitions are often paths to the most pernicious of traps

— Rohinton Mistry

Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.

— Rohinton Mistry

...the face has limited space. My mother used to say, if you fill your face with laughing, there will be no more…

— Rohinton Mistry