Quotes from Ruskin Bond

forward to another great day on the planet Earth. We must cherish each day as though it is our last.

We three, We're not a crowd; We're not even company— My echo, My shadow, And me… I

A Scout smiles and whistles under all difficulties.' And

In the West they say, 'Never talk to strangers.' In the East they say, 'Always talk to strangers.

Every problem has a solution hidden away somewhere, and if only you look hard enough you will find

Williamson, writing in 1810, tells us that the passes were so infested with tigers that the roads were almost impassible. 'Day after day, for nearly a fortnight, some of the dak people were carried off at one or other of these passes.' In

What you really want is freedom. Your own tree, your own room, your own small place in the sun.

history shows human beings to be the most dangerous of nature's show-offs. Inimical to each other, given over to greed and insatiable appetites. Nature strikes when roused; man, out of habit and a perverse nature. The

Begum Para, did I say? Not the Begum Para? The saucy heroine of the silver screen? And why not? This remarkable lady had dropped in from Pakistan to play the part of my grandmother in Shubhadarshini's serial Ek Tha Rusty, based on stores of my childhood.

Cold weather doesn't care if your coat is old or new.

Perhaps the wind is made up of ghosts. Perhaps this wind contains the ghosts of all the people who have lived, died and want to come in again from the cold.

Grandmother had wanted the peepul tree cut down, but Grandfather had said, 'Let it be. We can always build another outhouse.

And that's what I've been doing all my life—plodding along, singing my song, telling my tales in my own unhurried way. I have lived life at my own gentle pace, and if as a result I have failed to get to the top of the mountain (or of anything else), it doesn't matter, the long walk has brought its own sweet rewards; buttercups and butterflies along the way.   Ruskin Bond Landour, March 2005  

kindest people are often those who have come through testing personal tragedies. A

Book readers are special people, and they will always turn to books as the ultimate pleasure. Those who do not read are the unfortunate ones. There's nothing wrong with them, but they are missing out on one of life's compensations and rewards. A great book is a friend that never lets you down. You can return to it again and again, and the joy first derived from it will still be there.

William Henry Davies wrote these lines in 1911, and they ring true even over a century later. It is the truth; we really don't have the time to stand and stare. I always think of this when I don't have the luxury of time and am told to travel by airplanes, usually for book fairs and literature festivals. I wish I could take the train to every destination I travel to. There would be so much more to see, and many more stories to tell. The first

Is the perfect murder ever possible?

On the open road there are no strangers. You share the same sky, the same mountain, the same sunshine and

The truth is, what we commonly call life is not life at all. Its routine and settled ways are the curse of life, and we will do almost anything to get away from the trivial, even if it is only for a few hours of forgetfulness in alcohol, drugs, forbidden sex, or golf.

Remember, they lived in the drainpipes, too.

large black cat with bright, yellow eyes.

as the sound of water in the valleys, the singing of the hill people, the smell of the pines, and the blue smoke rising from the villages, are always with you in the Himalayas.

birds, and insects.

she knew that Grandmother was no longer with them. The dazed look in the old man's eyes told her as much. She wanted to cry — not for Grandmother, who could suffer no more, but for Grandfather, who looked so helpless and bewildered; she did not want him to be unhappy.