48 Well-Known Quotes By Vikram Seth Which Will Inspire You To Enjoy The Little Things In Life

Born in Calcutta, India, this writer has taken a huge career leap when he dropped from his PhD and took up writing as a profession. He left India for further studies and spent a substantial amount of his life in London. He then moved to China and his journey from China back to New Delhi, is nothing short of adventure. He travelled the entire route by hitchhiking and this tells us how interesting this journey might have turned. So much so that, he even wrote a book based on this journey and entitled it ‘From Heaven Lake’. Yes, we are talking about the Sahitya Academy Award winner Vikram Seth who has presented us with some enduring literary pieces.

His mother, Leila Seth, was a judge on the Delhi High Court and also the Chief Justice of a State High Court and she was the first female to have been appointed to these positions. When she came to know about her son’s sexual orientation, she was initially shocked but then decided to write about it. She penned about her son’s bisexuality and her words are indeed heartwarming.

As for the author, he has proved time and again that pen is mightier than the sword, and he uses this power to fight for rights.

“…I tend to put my views forward more through my writing than by taking up causes”, Seth said. Therefore, the best way to get a peek at his thoughts is to read through his quotes.

God save us from people who mean well.

- A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person's power. Be just to yourself.

- Vikram Seth

If I'm compelled to do something, I don't shy away from it simply because I haven't tackled it before. 

- Vikram Seth

You can talk good ideas out of existence. 

- Vikram Seth

Man without life companion is either god or beast.

- Vikram Seth

On the whole, I don't like reading long books. I'm not a fan of 'Ulysses.' And I haven't quite finished 'War and Peace.' 

- Vikram Seth

Good music is good music, but it has to be good. 

- Vikram Seth

So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English. 

- Vikram Seth

There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy. 

- Vikram Seth

Of course, I have to consider that I've written a lot of prose, but I do in my heart think of myself as being originally, and still primarily, a poet. 

- Vikram Seth

You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only. 

- Vikram Seth

Too many trees are killed to print the words of people who may not have all that much to say, and authors and journalists are equally culpable in this regard. 

- Vikram Seth

I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.

- Vikram Seth

What is the difference between my life and my love? One gets me low, the other lets me go.

- Vikram Seth

Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth?

- Vikram Seth

And an equation is the same whether it's written in red or green ink

- Vikram Seth

My eyes close. I am here and not here. A waking nap? A flight to the end of the galaxy and perhaps a couple of billion light-years beyond?

- Vikram Seth

Good books get praised, bad books get praised. Good books get ignored, bad books get ignored

- Vikram Seth

Of course, the greater one's need, the greater one's propensity to be mesmerized.

- Vikram Seth

The ifs and buts of history...form an insubstantial if intoxicating diet.

- Vikram Seth

He had come to a decision about the next step in his life. This decision was irrevocable unless he changed his mind.

- Vikram Seth

You will get what you want but you must want it and not just wish it.

- Vikram Seth

I'm not a mouse or a tigress, she thought, I'm a hedgehog.

- Vikram Seth

To steel yourself against mangoes showed a degree of iciness that was almost inhuman.

- Vikram Seth

Ghazal that he had heard Saeeda Bai sing, but, oddly,

- Vikram Seth

I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything. 

- Vikram Seth

I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside. 

- Vikram Seth

I'm not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own. 

- Vikram Seth

I am certainly not allergic to causes - particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance. 

- Vikram Seth

I simply seem to drift. But I sort of allow the drift, because it has a kind of check - it forces me to work harder at what I'm interested in. 

- Vikram Seth

It is exciting to write about the present once one gets beyond the trivia of the moment. As a time to live in, as a time to think about, the present is intriguing. 

- Vikram Seth

I rarely listen to music while writing. If I don't like it, it bothers me, and if I like it, it absorbs me so much I can't write. 

- Vikram Seth

My main motivation is not to get bored. I'm just hoping I get a vaguely maverick reputation. 

- Vikram Seth

I don't pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me. 

- Vikram Seth

You get your inspiration - suggestions - wherever you have to, even from your mother. 

- Vikram Seth

Dear though the reader might be, I'd be silly to cater to what the reader wanted. 

- Vikram Seth

I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books. 

- Vikram Seth

I think if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well. 

- Vikram Seth

I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature. 

- Vikram Seth

The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else. 

- Vikram Seth

After 'A Suitable Boy,' I didn't write anything, not even a short story. I thought to myself: 'I ought to start writing.' But I can never force myself to write. 

- Vikram Seth

In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian. 

- Vikram Seth

I don't think people give Indian society enough credit. We may not like to talk much about things but we do, basically, want to live and let live. 

- Vikram Seth

I just love music - by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent. 

- Vikram Seth

I tend to follow a scattershot approach to reading a lot of very diverse subjects interest me, and I'm quite happy to read stuff on any of them. 

- Vikram Seth

I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated. 

- Vikram Seth

I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I'm not. I'm just obsessed with my work. 

- Vikram Seth

I want my books to sell, to be read. I'm not interested in being obscure. 

- Vikram Seth

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