5 Quotes by Tabish Khair

Urbanity provides us with so many ways to avoid people. Isn't that what distinguishes it from traditional rural life, where the onus, perhaps because it was difficult & rare, was more on greeting people?

Bastard was a term of affection between us, as it usually is in the sub-continent between men who share a Catholic missionary-school education.

People who do not understand irony cannot understand fiction.

For the first time in two or three days, I heard the cry of birds – oh well, it was a crow, but even a crow’s croaking sounded wonderful. There still was life. There were birds and the breeze. There were clouds in the blue sky. And we could look at them for a moment, hear them again. You have no idea how beautiful the world looks and sounds in the hours after a battle stops!

It is in the gap between your imperfections, honestly faced, and your desire for something beyond perfection that you can achieve genius. Perfect pitch, perfect life, perfect love – these are dead-ends.