147 Quotes by Vikram Seth

I don’t think anyone should be banned. If you don’t like a book, set it aside.

You get your inspiration – suggestions – wherever you have to, even from your mother.

Those books of mine that are remunerative – I’m not talking about poetry here – take years to write, and I am never sure they’ll be successful. So writing is a risk in more senses than one.

The past is the past, and he can’t make amends, only hope that the gain will outlast the damage.

I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I’m not. I’m just obsessed with my work.

I’m not a mouse or a tigress, she thought, I’m a hedgehog.

Oh, no said her mother sadly. You know nothing of the pettiness of women. When brothers agree to split a joint family they sometimes divide lakhs of rupees worth of property in a few minutes. But the tussle of their wives over the pots and pans in the common kitchen – that nearly causes bloodshed.

I spent many years of my life as an economist and demographer. I was finally distracted by writing my novels and poetry. I’m enormously happy that was the case. I feel that with writing I have found my metier.

You have to learn a few things, which you do along the way, but basically, poetry is a matter of the ear. Iambic pentameters or what constitutes a stanza comes naturally – your ears will know.