Quotes from Kiran Desai

He seemed unaware of what was going on, stared out without hope or ambition, without worry, developing a quality devoid of qualities to get him through this life.

There was no system to soothe the unfairness of things; justice was without scope; it might snag the stealer of chickens, but great evasive crimes would have to be dismissed because, if identified and netted, they would bring down the entire structure of so-called civilization.

When they would finally attempt to rise from those indolent afternoons they spent together, Gyan and Sai would have melted into each other like pats of butter—how difficult it was to cool and compose themselves back into their individual beings.

Now here was Saeed Saeed, and Biju's admiration for the man confounded him. Fate worked this way. Biju was overcome by the desire to be his friend, because Saeed Saeed wasn't drowning, he was bobbing in the tides.

Here in America, where every nationality confirmed its stereo-type

This was how history moved, the slow build, the quick burn, and in an incoherence, the leaping both backward and forward, swallowing the young into old hate.

She'd have to propel herself into the future by whatever means possible or she'd be trapped forever in a place whose time had already passed.

Perhaps that's why they had been so happy to learn a new tongue in the first place : the self consciousness of it, the effort of it, the grammar of it, pulled you up; a new language provided distance and kept the heart intact.

Qu'est-ce qu'un pays sinon l'idée qu'on s'en fait ?

Le temps est fait pour avancer. Ne t'accommode pas d'une vie où il reste figé.

The men sat unbedding their rage, learning, as everyone does in this country, at one time or another, that old hatreds are endlessly retrievable.

the Himalayas rose layer upon layer until those gleaming peaks proved a man to be so small that it made sense to give it all up, empty it all out.

Jemubhai looked at his father, a barely educated man venturing where he should not be, and the love in Jemubhai's heart mingled with pity, the pity with shame.

Jemu watched his father disappear. He didn't throw the coconut and he didn't cry. Never again would he know love for a human being that wasn't adulterated by another, contradictory emotion.

He had told her the story of his brave ancestors in the army, but why didn't he ever speak of his family here and now?

Time should move," Noni had told her. "Don't go in for a life where time doesn't pass, the way I did. That is the single best bit of advice I can give you.

beyond anything the INS could imagine, it was an old-fashioned romance.

and gradually his face took on an expression of grudging pudding contentment.

They sipped and ate, all of existence passed over by nonexistence, the gate leading nowhere, and they watched the tea spill copious ribbony curls of vapor, watched their breath join the mist slowly twisting and turning, twisting and turning.

A cat - a perfection of containment no amount of love or science could penetrate. One's involvement in other peoples' lives gave one numerous small opportunities for importance.

a technology fair on cow dung gas stoves was being attended by delegates from all over the

It was a terrible thing to be awake while some people flew, carrying the world over his head, and others slept, claiming it from under his feet.

These people are just louts, and that's the truth

Sai had wondered, Should humans conquer the mountain or should they wish for the mountain to possess them?