Quotes from Vikas Swarup

One does not question a miracle.

A great artist is not one who merely fits into a genre but one who defines the genre.

Till now, my conception of love has been based entirely on what I have seen in Hindi films, where the hero and the heroine make eye contact, and whoosh, some strange chemistry sets their hearts beating and their vocal chords tingling, and the next you see of them they are off singing songs in Swiss Villages and American shopping malls.

You must never take a direct route to your destination.

There are those who will say that I brought this upon myself. By dabbling in that quiz show. They will wag a finger at me and remind me of what the elders in Dharavi say about never crossing the dividing line that separates the rich from the poor. After all, what business did a penniless waiter have to be participating in a brain quiz? The brain is not an organ we are authorized to use. We are supposed to use only our hands and legs.

Train journeys are about possibilities. They denote a change in state. When you arrive, you are no longer the same person who departed.

It's a basic rule of human nature that the promise of unexpected wealth short-circuits both intelligence and common sense.

Never judge a man's actions until you know his motives

Because luck comes from within

The line of head is strong, but the line of heart is weak. And most importantly, the line of life is short. The stars do not seem to be right.

There is some pleasure even in pain. A sweet ecstasy.

The burning ambition of my life was to marry her one day. The consuming worry of my life was to whether she would agree.

God made the human body like a machine with built-in obsolescence.

I held my breath and wished for that moment to last as long as it possibly could, because a waking dream is always more fleeting than a sleeping one.

It is a destiny of a woman to suffer in silence.

Confuse your trail, lose your trail.

Lajwanti made the cardinal mistake of trying to cross the dividing line that separates the existence of the rich from that of the poor. She made the fatal error of dreaming beyond her means. The bigger the dream, the bigger the disappointment.

a rainy day ceases to have meaning for a person who has lived in the open under a monsoon cloud most of his life.

The city may have chosen to ignore the ugly growth of Dharavi, but a cancer cannot be stopped simply by being declared illegal. It still kills with its slow poison.

After all, what business did a penniless waiter have to be participating in a brain quiz? The brain is not an organ we are authorized to use. We are supposed to use only our hands and legs.

You should take a good look at all sides of an issue before making a decision. Put something away in case of an emergency. New neighbors will bring good cheer. A small problem may occur at home base, but you will solve it quickly and correctly. Don't offer smart advice unless you are really asked to comment.

I may have entered her body, but now I want to enter her mind.

What would I do with all that wealth? Eventually a man just needs six feet of cloth for his shroud.