Anita Desai Quotes

• Someone who wants to write should make an effort to write a little something every day. Writing in this sense is the same as athletes who practice a sport every day to keep their skills honed.

  Anita Desai

  Sports, Writing, Athlete

  Baruch College Class Interview, www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  60 Copy quote

• Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.

  Anita Desai

  Travel, Traveler, Great Travel

  "10 kick-ass benefits of travelling with your kid(s)" by Devishobha Ramanan, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 12, 2016.

  28 Copy quote

• Isn't it strange how life won't flow, like a river, but moves in jumps, as if it were held back by locks that are opened now and then to let it jump forwards in a kind of flood?

  Anita Desai

  Moving, Rivers, Locks

  Anita Desai (1980). “Clear Light of Day”, p.42, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  18 Copy quote

• India is a curious place that still preserves the past, religions, and its history. No matter how modern India becomes, it is still very much an old country.

  Anita Desai

  Country, Past, Modern India

  "Class Interview with Anita Desai". www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  15 Copy quote

• What a sense of possession, of confidence, it gave one to have pockets, to shove one's fists into them, as if in simply owning pockets one owned riches, owned independence.

  Anita Desai

  Independence, Pockets, Fists

  Anita Desai (1980). “Clear light of day”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  12 Copy quote

• I aim to tell the truth about any subject, not a romance or fantasy, not avoid the truth.

  Anita Desai

  Romance, Fantasy, Telling The Truth

  Baruch College Class Interview, www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  8 Copy quote

• ...the moon that hung over the garden like some great priceless pearl, flawed and blemished with grey shadowy ridges as only a very great beauty can risk being.

  Anita Desai

  Moon, Garden, Risk

  Anita Desai (1980). “Clear Light of Day”, p.159, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  8 Copy quote

• The wheel turns and turns and turns: it never stops and stands still.

  Anita Desai

  Wheels, Turns, Stills

  5 Copy quote

• Do you know anyone who would - secretly, sincerely, in his innermost self - really prefer to return to childhood?

  Anita Desai

  Self, Childhood, Return

  The Clear Light of Day ch. 1 (1980)

  6 Copy quote

• My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly.

  Anita Desai

  Writing, Style, Trying

  "Class Interview with Anita Desai". www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  10 Copy quote

• Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book.

  Anita Desai

  Motivational, Disappointment, Book

  Class Interview, www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  9 Copy quote

• I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

  Anita Desai

  Character, Trying, Stories

  "Class Interview with Anita Desai". www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  8 Copy quote

• Ever since I could first write I have been doing so. When I was taught how to write and read at school, I made up my mind that this was what I love to do best and this was the world I was going to occupy.

  Anita Desai

  School, Writing, Mind

  "Class Interview with Anita Desai". www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  7 Copy quote

• When I was very young, I used to share much of what I wrote with my family, but as I got older and more self-conscious, it became a much more private process.

  Anita Desai

  Self, My Family, Conscious

  "Class Interview with Anita Desai". www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  7 Copy quote

• When I am writing, I focus one hundred percent on my writing. Then, by the time I'm half way through the book, I'm already thinking about the ending.

  Anita Desai

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• The book begins and ends with the visits to give the impression of a tunnel into their ancestors and family history. I believe in going backwards into the past - I felt I was digging a tunnel back to the past.

  Anita Desai

  Believe, Book, Past

  "Class Interview with Anita Desai". www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  16 Copy quote

• People think that because I write about India I must be trying to portray India in a way.

  Anita Desai

  Writing, Thinking, People

  "Class Interview with Anita Desai". www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

  4 Copy quote

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