Rohinton Mistry Quotes

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Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.

Rohinton Mistry

Flirting, Madness, Whole

FaceBook post by Rohinton Mistry from Mar 29, 2016

52 Copy quote
The whole quilt is much more important than any single square.

Rohinton Mistry

Quilts, Squares, Important

FaceBook post by Rohinton Mistry from Mar 25, 2012

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Everyone underestimates their own life. Funny thing is, in the end, all our stories...they're the same. In fact, no matter where you go in the world, there is only one important story: of youth, loss and yearning for redemption. So we tell the same story, over and over. Only the details are different.

Rohinton Mistry

Loss, Funny Things, Important

FaceBook post by Rohinton Mistry from Oct 28, 2012

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...you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end it’s all a question of balance.

Rohinton Mistry

Balance, Despair, Use

Rohinton Mistry (2010). “A Fine Balance”, p.328, Vintage

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After all, our lives are but a sequence of accidents - a clanking chain of chance events. A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call life.

Rohinton Mistry

Choices, Add, Events

Rohinton Mistry (2010). “A Fine Balance”, p.758, Vintage

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...the face has limited space. My mother used to say, if you fill your face with laughing, there will be no more room for crying.

Rohinton Mistry

Mother, Space, Laughing

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If there was an abundance of misery in the world, there was also sufficient joy, yes - as long as one knew where to look for it.

Rohinton Mistry

Long, Joy, World

FaceBook post by Rohinton Mistry from Jul 27, 2016

8 Copy quote
You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them, sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success

Rohinton Mistry

Moving, Use, Lines

Rohinton Mistry (2008). “A Fine Balance”, p.232, Faber & Faber

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World can be a bewildering place,and dreams and ambitions are often paths to the most pernicious of traps

Rohinton Mistry

Dream, Ambition, World

Rohinton Mistry (2008). “Tales from Firozsha Baag”, p.117, Faber & Faber

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You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.

Rohinton Mistry

Balance, Despair, Fine

Rohinton Mistry (2010). “A Fine Balance”, p.328, Vintage

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Money can buy the necessary police order. Justice is sold to the highest bidder

Rohinton Mistry

Order, Justice, Police

Rohinton Mistry (2008). “A Fine Balance”, p.432, Faber & Faber

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What folly made young people, even those in middle age, think they were immortal? How much better, their lives, if they could remember the end. Carrying your death with you every day would make it hard to waste time on unkindness and anger and bitterness, on anything petty. That was the secret: remembering your dying time, in order to keep the stupid and the ugly out of your living time.

Rohinton Mistry

Life, Stupid, Thinking

FaceBook post by Rohinton Mistry from Jan 13, 2013

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Distance was a dangerous thing, she knew. Distance changed people.

Rohinton Mistry

Distance, People, Dangerous

Rohinton Mistry (2010). “A Fine Balance”, p.316, Vintage

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Let me tell you a secret: there is no such thing as an uninteresting life One day you must tell me your full and complete story, unabridged and unexpurgated.We will set aside some time for it, and meet. It's very important. Maneck smiled. 'Why is it important?' It's extremely important because it helps to remind yourself of who you are. Then you can go forward, without fear of losing yourself in this ever-changing world.

Rohinton Mistry

Secret, Important, One Day

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The worst part of great poverty is that you become blind to it.

Rohinton Mistry

Poverty, Blind, Worst

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In the end, it’s all a question of balance.

Rohinton Mistry

Balance, Ends

Rohinton Mistry (2010). “A Fine Balance”, p.328, Vintage

13 Copy quote
So we tell the same story, over and over. Just the details are different

Rohinton Mistry

Details, Different, Stories

Rohinton Mistry (2008). “Family Matters”, p.157, Faber & Faber

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…God is a giant quiltmaker. With an infinite variety of designs. And the quilt is grown so big and confusing, the pattern is impossible to see, the squares and diamonds and triangles don’t fit well together anymore, it’s all become meaningless. So He has abandoned it.

Rohinton Mistry

Quilts, Squares, Design

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How can time be long or short? Time is without length or breadth. The question is, what happened during its passing. And what happened is, our lives have been joined together.

Rohinton Mistry

Long, Together, Length

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Loss is essential, loss is part and parcel of that necessary calamity called life. Mind you, I'm not complaining. Thanks to some inexplicable universal guiding force, it is always the worthless things we lose - slough off, like a moulting snake. Losing and losing again, is the very basis of the process, til all we are left with is the bare essence of human existence.

Rohinton Mistry

Loss, Essence, Snakes

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If time were a bolt of cloth,” said Om, “I would cut out all the bad parts. Snip out the scary nights and stitch together the good parts, to make time bearable. Then I could wear it like a coat, always live happily.

Rohinton Mistry

Cutting, Night, Scary

Rohinton Mistry (2010). “A Fine Balance”, p.418, Vintage

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Children don't make judgments about which details are important... a child captures them all.

Rohinton Mistry

Children, Important, Details

"Touched with fire" by Angela Lambert, www.theguardian.com. April 26, 2002.

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I think a lot about the past, it's true. But at my age, the past is more present than the here and now. And there is not much percentage in the future.

Rohinton Mistry

Thinking, Past, Age

"Family Matters". Book by Rohinton Mistry, 2002.

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Time had changed the magical to mundane

Rohinton Mistry

Changed, Mundane

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What an unreliable thing is time--when I want it to fly, the hours stick to me like glue. And what a changeable thing, too. Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl's hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful colour and your hair. .... But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly.

Rohinton Mistry

Girl, Ties, Hair

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Born: July 3, 1952
Occupation: Writer
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