Quotes from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I thought that if lokas existed at all, good women would surely go to one where men were not allowed so that they could be finally free of male demands. However, I prudently kept this theory to myself.

He told me that visions of all he needed to write came to him at the oddest moments, forcing him to abandon other activities and write them down.

advise you to forget about love, princess. Pleasure is simpler, and duty more important. Learn to be satisfied with them." I should have believed her and modified my expectations. But I didn't. Deep in my stubborn heart I was convinced I deserved more.

That's how it is sometimes when we plunge into the depths of our lives. No one can accompany us, not even those who would give up their hearts for our happiness.

The kings are always fighting," she said. "All they want is more land, more power. They tax the common people to starvation and force them to fight in their armies.

I knew I was intelligent—wasn't Dhai Ma always complaining about how overly smart I was? I knew enough to control passion. I visualized myself as a great queen, dispensing wisdom and love. Panchaali the Peacemaker, people would call me. The sorceress laughed.

A wind rose around me, from where I didn't know. It was unexpectedly cold and made me shiver. 'Sacrifice, sacrifice', whispered the trees, carrying my promise across the valley

I only ask that we think carefully before we act. Let us not, in our anger, do something we will regret later. It is easy to start a bonfire, hard to put it out.

My heart is yours, as yours is mine.

Promises only lead to trouble.

For seven lifetimes will I follow you to the ends of the earth.

If she had another chance, she thinks, she would do it differently. But chance is a slippery customer, and she can feel Amit's hands growing cold.

only towards one man can I feel that wrenching whirlwind emotion, soaring to heaven, flung down to hell, both at once.

made to the other women when I joined them at night. The pleasures that arise from sense-objects are bound to end, and thus they are only sources of pain. Don't get attached to them.

Krishna shrugged. "He believes it to be so. Isn't that what truth is? The force of a person's believing seeps into those around him—into the very earth and air and water—until there's nothing else.

Would you like to come in?" I said. My hands were sweaty. Inside my chest an ocean heaved and crashed and heaved again. "I would," he said. I saw his Adam's apple jerk as he swallowed. "Thank you." I was distracted by that thank you. We had moved past the language of formality long ago. It was strange to relearn it with each other.

But I was like a bird caught in a snare. Only, the wires of this snare were made of curiosity and a disobedient heart.

Priya thinks, The things we give away are no longer ours to control.

It added that I was no ordinary person but one with a complicated destiny. My great sacrifice, it indicated, would save the world. Or did it mean that I was the great sacrifice? The bow was often troublingly ambiguous. Once it told me I wasn't a woman at all. 'What am I, then?' 'A goddess, obviously.

Because that's the thing about us human beings when we really love someone, we can be happy even while our heart is breaking.

To return to the peaceful forest, its healing green canopies. To return to the ashram community, where everyone trusts and accepts me

blamed love, too, for my silence. How it makes us back down from protesting because we're afraid of displeasing the beloved, or because we're afraid that our disagreement is the symptom of a greater disease: incompatibility of values.

Fame: it's a drug more potent than opium.

I sogni sono telegrammi che vengono dal mondo dell'invisibile, - l'ho sentita dichiarare una volta. - Solo gli sciocchi - o gli analfabeti - lo ignorano