Anita Desai Quotes

Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.

Isn't it strange how life won't flow, like a river, but moves in jumps, as if it were held back by locks that are opened now and then to let it jump forwards in a kind of flood?

Someone who wants to write should make an effort to write a little something every day. Writing in this sense is the same as athletes who practice a sport every day to keep their skills honed.

...the moon that hung over the garden like some great priceless pearl, flawed and blemished with grey shadowy ridges as only a very great beauty can risk being.

Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book.

The book begins and ends with the visits to give the impression of a tunnel into their ancestors and family history. I believe in going backwards into the past - I felt I was digging a tunnel back to the past.

India is a curious place that still preserves the past, religions, and its history. No matter how modern India becomes, it is still very much an old country.

The wheel turns and turns and turns: it never stops and stands still.

My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.