Quotes from Shashi Deshpande

Things can never be as they were. It's astonishing how we comment on change, as if change is something remarkable. On the contrary, not to change is unnatural, against nature.

It's not just that life is cruel, but that in the very process of our birth we submit to life's cruelty

A wife should always be few feet behind her husband. If he is an MA you should be a BA.If he is 5'4'tall you shouldn't be more than 5'3'tall. If he is earning five hundred rupees you should never earn more than four hundred and ninety nine rupees.That's the only rule to follow if you want a happy marriage...No partnership can ever be equal.It will always be unequal, but take care it is unequal in favor of the husband. If the scales tilt in your favor, God help you, both of you.

Women without men, I realized then, are totally different creatures.

Things can never be as they were. It's astonishing how we comment on change, as if change is something remarkable. On the contrary, not to change is unnatural, against nature.

To overcome your fear of death, you have to move from 'the world ends with me' to 'the world goes on without me'. It is a great leap, the biggest step a human can take.

Surely there comes a moment in every human's life when he or she says, like the Sibyl - I wish to die.

It's not just that life is cruel, but that in the very process of our birth we submit to life's cruelty

Was' and 'is' – in English there is very little difference between these two words. Only one letter more , just two letters different. But it is a lifetime, it is a world of difference. Time does not allow you to take the past along with you. Nothing remains unchanged. Love gets diluted, hate is forgotten and friendship and enmity keep shifting all the time. One day, when you look back, you will ask yourself – what was it all about.

I know that safety is always unattainable. You're never safe.

A woman can never be angry; she can only be neurotic, hysterical, frustrated.

I have often watched in fascination the leaps and bounds of her mind as, starting from the banks of uncomfortable facts, she reaches the safety of easier-tolive-with invention.

And then, as we grew into young women, we realised it was not love, but marriage that was the destiny waiting for us.

. . . a friend . . . showed me the kitchen in her new home with the words, "This is my office." I knew what she meant. This is where I do the work I want to, the work I like and enjoy.