62 Quotes by Kiran Desai

Perhaps that's why they had been so happy to learn a new tongue in the first place : the self consciousness of it, the effort of it, the grammar of it, pulled you up; a new language provided distance and kept the heart intact.

When you build on lies, you build strong and solid. It was the truth that undid you.

Qu'est-ce qu'un pays sinon l'idée qu'on s'en fait ?

the Himalayas rose layer upon layer until those gleaming peaks proved a man to be so small that it made sense to give it all up, empty it all out.

All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths.

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

A journey once begun, has no end.

No fruit dies so vile and offensive a death as the banana...

In India, if you are from the elite, dogs are extremely important. The breed of the dog indicates your wealth, that you are westernized. The cook, another human being, is on a much lower level than your dog. You see this all the time.