64 Quotes by Romesh Gunesekera

I grew up in Colombo but was lucky enough to spend a lot of time in the countryside as well. Although there was considerable turbulence, even in the 1950s, it did not throw a shadow on my consciousness.

I must believe that in words we will find what in fury we cannot.

If you are writing something, you automatically create a certain distance. It can be very little. Even within the same city you imaginatively have a certain distance from your subject, and at the same time, you have to have a connection.

In the sense that writing is to retrieve the past and stop the passing of time, all writing is about loss. It's not nostalgia in the sense of yearning to bring back the past, but recognition of the erosion of things as you live.

I probably felt most out of place as a young kid growing up in Sri Lanka. My mental world was somewhere else, partly because of reading and daydreaming.

In writing, I try to find the right balance between momentum and infinity, truth and beauty.

I don't think I knew I would be a writer. I wanted to become a writer, and I tried to write.

I don't think there ever will be a biopic on me! I would much like some of my books to be made into films.

I believe if a sentence is to retain its strength over time, it needs to be carefully made.