Arundhati Roy Quotes

Sleep came to them, quick and easy, like money to millionaires.

Hide!' she whispered. 'The vegetarians are coming.

What does loss mean to individuals? What does it mean to whole cultures, whole people who have learned to live with it as a constant companion?

A quiet bubble floating on a sea of noise. (Estha)

India belongs not to Punjabis, Biharis, Gujaratis, Madrasis, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, but to those beautiful creatures — peacocks, elephants, tigers, bears…

When India and Pakistan conducted their nuclear tests in 1998, even those of us who condemned them, balked at the hypocrisy of Western nuclear powers. Implicit in their denunciation of the tests was the notion that Blacks cannot be trusted with the Bomb. Now we are presented with the spectacle of our governments competing to confirm that belief.

They had always fitted together like pieces of an unsolved (and perhaps unsolvable) puzzle- the smoke of her into the solidness of him, the solitariness of her into the gathering of him, the strangeness of her into the straightforwardness of him, the insouciance of her into the restraint of him. The quietness of her into the quietness of him.

Rahel knew that this had happened because she had been hoping that it wouldn’t. She hadn’t learned to control her Hopes yet.

One of her ambitions was to own a watch on which she could change the time whenever she wanted to (which according to her was what Time was meant for in the first place)

Was it possible to live outside language? Naturally this question did not address itself to her in words, or as a single lucid sentence. It addressed itself to her as a soundless, embryonic howl.

"So here we have it. The equivocating distinction between civilisation and savagery, between the "massacre of innocent people" or, if you like, "a clash of civilisations" and "collateral damage". The sophistry and fastidious algebra of infinite justice."

В онези ранни смътни години, за които едва си спомняха, когато животът беше пълен с множество начала, но липсваха краища, когато всичко им се струваше завинаги, Еста и Рахел заедно се възприемаха като мен, а поотделно, насаме, като Ние или Нас. Сякаш бяха някаква странна порода сиамски близнаци, разделени физически, но с обща самоличност.
Сега, след толкова години, Рахел още пази спомена как една нощ се бе събудила от собствения си смях, породен от някакъв смешен сън на Еста.
Помни и други неща, които не би трябвало да помни.

From now on it is not dying we must fear, but living.

To understand history,' Chacko said, 'we have to go inside and listen to what they're saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.

"...India belongs not to Punjabis, Biharis, Gujaratis, Madrasis, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, but to those beautiful creatures—peacocks, elephants, tigers, bears…" (p172)