Quotes from Arundhati Roy

In an old war, everybody has an ax to grind.

In the years to come, when the war became a way of life, there would be books and films and photo exhibitions curated around the theme of Kashmir's grief and loss.

She remembered reading somewhere that even after people died, their hair and nails kept growing. Like starlight, travelling through the universe long after the stars themselves had died. Like cities. Fizzy, effervescent, simulating the illusion of life while the planet they had plundered died around them.

She speaks the most beautiful Urdu.

An unmixable mix. The infinite tenderness of motherhood and the reckless rage of a suicide bomber.

only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside.

There were rumours and counter­rumours. There were rumours that might have been true, and truths that ought to have been just rumours.

There seems to be no hope. But pretending to be hopeful is the only grace we have . . .

Isn't the greatness of great nations directly proportionate to their ability to be ruthless and genocidal? Doesn't the height of a country's "success" usually also mark the depths of its moral failure?

It celebrated (but never preached) the virtue of spirituality over sacrament, simplicity over opulence and stubborn, ecstatic love even when faced with the prospect of annihilation.

It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined. Over the years, as the memory of Sophie Mol (the seeker of small wisdoms: Where do old birds go to die? Why don't dead ones fall like stones from the sky?

The harbinger of harsh reality:

Isn't the greatness of great nations directly proportionate to their ability to be ruthless and genocidal? Doesn't the height of a country's success usually also mark the depths of its moral failure?

founded by the British hero Sir Henry Lawrence, who died defending the British Residency during the siege of Lucknow in the 1857 "Indian Mutiny." He authored a legal code in the Punjab that forbade forced labor, infanticide, and the practice of sati, self-immolation by widows. Hard as it may be to accept, things aren't always as simple as they're made out to be. The motto of our school was "Never Give In.

Cargaban sobre sus espaldas un barril de odio antiguo, prendido con una mecha reciente.

Fiercely competitive TV channels covered the story of the breaking city as "Breaking News." Nobody pointed out the irony.

Big thinks lurks unsaid inside

She had always loved that about him, the way he belonged so completely to a people whom he loved and laughed at, complained about and swore at, but never separated himself from.

We're moving in a single file now. Myself and one hundred 'senselessly violent,' bloodthirsty insurgents. I looked around at the camp before we left. There are no signs that almost a hundred people had camped here, except for some ash where the fires had been. I cannot believe this army. As far as consumption goes, it has a lighter carbon footprint than any climate change evangelist.

Hay cosas que traen su propio castigo. Son como los dormitorios que tienen armarios empotrados. Pronto todos ellos aprenderían más cosas sobre los castigos. Que los hay de diferentes tamaños. Que algunos son tan grandes como armarios que tuvieran dormitorios empotrados.

Her collarbones like wings spread from the base of her throat to the ends of her shoulders. A bird held down by skin. — Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things . (Random House April 22, 1997)

That the emptiness in one twin was only a version of the quietness in the other. That the two things fitted together. Like stacked spoons. Like familiar lovers' bodies.

Mientras otros chicos de su edad aprendían otras cosas, Estha y Rahel aprendieron cómo la historia negocia sus condiciones y ajusta las cuentas a aquellos que violan sus leyes. Oyeron su ruido sordo y nauseabundo. Olieron su olor y nunca lo olvidaron.

Ese era el problema con los parientes. Al igual que los médicos aviesos, sabían dónde hacer más daño al tocar.