Jhumpa Lahiri Quotes - Page 3

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Books Mothers Parents Writing

She has given birth to vagabonds. She is the keeper of all these names and numbers now, numbers she once knew by heart, numbers and addresses her children no longer remember.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Children, Heart, Names

FaceBook post by Jhumpa Lahiri from May 06, 2011

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The most compelling narrative, expressed in sentences with which I have no chemical reaction, or an adverse one, leaves me cold.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrative, Cold, Chemical Reactions

"My Life's Sentences". opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. March 17, 2012.

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A writer has to true to him or herself. Period. That’s it!

Jhumpa Lahiri

Periods

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There were times Ruma felt closer to her mother in death than she had in life, an intimacy born simply of thinking of her so often, of missing her. But she knew that this was an illusion, a mirage, and that the distance between them was now infinite, unyielding.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Mother, Distance, Thinking

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One hand, five homes. A lifetime in a fist.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Home, Hands, Fists

Jhumpa Lahiri (2004). “The Namesake: A Novel”, p.167, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Try to remember it always," he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. "Remember that you and I made this journey together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Mother, Journey, Waiting

Jhumpa Lahiri (2004). “The Namesake: A Novel”, p.187, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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He tries to peel the image from the sticky yellow backing, to show her the next time he sees her, but it clings stubbornly, refusing to detach cleanly from the past.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Past, Yellow, Trying

FaceBook post by Jhumpa Lahiri from Jan 03, 2014

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She supposed that all those years of loving a person who was dishonest had taught her a few things.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Years, Taught, Persons

Jhumpa Lahiri (2008). “Unaccustomed Earth”, p.318, Vintage

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I've seen novels that have grown out of one story in a collection. But it hasn't occurred to me to take any of those stories and build on them. They seem very finished for me, so I don't feel like going back and dredging them up.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Stories, Dredging, Novel

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Gogol is unaccustomed to this sort of talk at mealtimes, to the indulgent ritual of the lingering meal, and the pleasant aftermath of bottles and crumbs and empty glasses that clutter the table.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Glasses, Meals, Aftermath

Jhumpa Lahiri (2004). “The Namesake: A Novel”, p.134, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Amid the gray, an incongruous band of daytime blue asserts itself. To the west, a pink sun already begins its descent. The effect is of three isolated aspects, distinct phases of the day. All of it, strewn across the horizon, is contained in his vision.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Blue, Vision, Three

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She has the gift of accepting her life.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Namesake, Accepting

Jhumpa Lahiri (2003). “The Namesake”, p.138, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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On the screen I saw tanks rolling through dusty streets, and fallen buildings, and forests of unfamiliar trees into which East Pakistani refugees had fled, seeking safety over the Indian border.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Safety, Tree, Tanks

Jhumpa Lahiri (2000). “Interpreter of Maladies”, p.31, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in bowl.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Squares, August, Two

FaceBook post by Jhumpa Lahiri from May 13, 2012

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And wasn't it terrible, how much he looked forward to those moments, so much so that sometimes even a ride by himself on the subway was the best part of the day? Wasn't it terrible that after all the work one put into finding a person to spend one's life with, after making a family with that person, even in spite of missing that person...that solitude was what one relished the most, the only thing that, even in fleeting, diminished doses, kept one sane?

Jhumpa Lahiri

Missing, Solitude, Fleeting

FaceBook post by Jhumpa Lahiri from Feb 12, 2012

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She watched his lips forming the words, at the same time she heard them under her skin, under her winter coat, so near and full of warmth that she felt herself go hot.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Winter, Skins, Hot

Jhumpa Lahiri (2000). “Interpreter of Maladies”, p.91, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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...that in spite of living in a mansion an American is not above wearing a pair of secondhand pants, bought for fifty cents.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Fifty, Pants, Pairs

Jhumpa Lahiri (2004). “The Namesake: A Novel”, p.52, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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For that story, I took as my subject a young woman whom I got to know over the course of a couple of visits. I never saw her having any health problems - but I knew she wanted to be married.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Couple, Stories, Saws

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In New York I was always so scared of saying that I wrote fiction. It just seemed like, 'Who am I to dare to do that thing here? The epicenter of publishing and writers?' I found all that very intimidating and avoided writing as a response.

Jhumpa Lahiri

New York, Writing, Fiction

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I don't know why, but the older I get the more interested I get in my parents' marriage. And it's interesting to be married yourself, too, because there is an inevitable comparison.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Parents Marriage, Interesting, Married

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It's easy to set a story anywhere if you get a good guidebook and get some basic street names, and some descriptions, but, for me, yes, I am indebted to my travels to India for several of the stories.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Names, India, Stories

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A lot of my upbringing was about denying or fretting or evading.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Fretting, Upbringing

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I wanted to pull away from the things that marked my parents as being different.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Parent, Being Different, Different

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She learned that an act intended to express love could have nothing to do with it. That her heart and her body were different things.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Heart, Different, Body

Jhumpa Lahiri (2013). “The Lowland”, p.162, A&C Black

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She is stunned that in this town there are no sidewalks to speak of, no streetlights, no public transportation, no stores for miles at at a time.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Towns, Speak, Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri (2004). “The Namesake: A Novel”, p.49, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Born: July 11, 1967
Occupation: Author
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