Quotes from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Strong women, when respected, make the whole society stronger. One must be careful with such rapid changes, though, and make an effort to preserve, at the same time, the positive traditions of Indian culture.

Sometimes -- she knows this from her own life -- to get to the other side, you must travel through grief. No detours are possible.

In life, it's best not to take anything for free - unless it's from someone who wishes you well.

I came to the plain fields of Ohio with pictures painted by Hollywood movies and the works of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. None of them had much to say, if at all, about Dayton, Ohio.

The Mahabharata might have been a great and heroic battle, but there are no winners. The losers, of course, lose.

Two great and terrible truths of war are these: War is easy to enter into, but difficult to end. And ultimately, in war there are no winners.

India has been a very accepting culture. We pride ourselves on that. That is a global truth. In fact, it forms a major theme in my books.

Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified. 'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.

Everyone has a story. I don't believer anyone can go through life without encountering at least one amazing thing.

I saw something I hadn't realized before: words wasted energy. I would use my strength instead to nurture my belief that my life would unfurl uniquely.

Everytime i have turned the page he re-enters my life as awkward as postscript

I came into Chicago in winter - I'd never been so cold in my life! I was very homesick, and a poor student at that time. America seemed so different and so filled with amazing things - and almost all of them were out of my reach.

I have been watching how Indian women are forced to do certain things, as the stories of sacrifice and devotion in mythology demand from them. And then there are inspiring stories about women like the Rani of Jhansi that offer women refreshing role models.

I have no particular reader in mind, but a passionate desire to tell an honest, moving story.

If it is good literature, the reader and the writer will connect. It's inevitable.

I'm a very senses-oriented person, and I want to bring readers in on the level of the senses, so they can experience another culture and another place.

As I lived on in America, I got to truly know the people of this country - so many kind and wonderful people, people of so many races - who helped me in so many ways. Who became my friends. I realized that underneath our different accents, habits, foods, religions, ways of thinking, we shared a common humanity.

I was caught on the freeway for hours when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The entire city had to be evacuated. I observed lives threatened by catastrophes and a whole range of behaviour. What could people do during a crisis?

I want my books to force readers to recognise the fact that a woman is a human being just like them.

By the time we're adults, our ideas have solidified. So I wanted to write for a younger audience, who would perhaps love heroes from other cultures.

To make money for college, I worked in our college dining room.

When I was volunteering with Hurricane Katrina refugees in Houston in 2005, I first started thinking about the whole phenomenon of grace under pressure.

I am a Hindu, brought up mostly in India.

I hate it when people throw away food - I've seen too many hungry people.