7 Quotes by Samanth Subramanian

[Speaking to 29-year-old ex-guerrilla]'I see it as a process. First, yes, you do negotiate. But if that does not work, then you have to use violence to get what you need. Even if you have to bomb a school.' There was a swagger to that statement, a perverted machismo: only a real man understands the necessity of bombing a school.

In the absence of ancient hatreds, chauvinism can easily rustle up modern ones.

But the heart weakens without democracy, and there was no democracy within the Tigers. They antagonized their own brothers by killing them.

To attempt to write with enthusiasm about food, I have discovered, requires two great qualities: the ability to eat with a catholic, voluminous appetite, and the ability to eat out alone.

If Bengali cuisine were Wimbledon, the hilsa would always play on Centre Court.

Shrink the humanity of your enemy, and the fighting must seem easier, more just, less complicated. Warfare consists of several psychological tricks, not least the ones you play upon yourself.

Fishing is still elemental in the most elemental sense of the word – an activity composed of water and air and light and space, all arranged in precarious balance around a central idea of a man in a boat, waiting for a bite.