I think it’s possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated. – 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
If somebody writes clearly, you can pretty much tell immediately if something is shallow or deep, whereas if they write with all this duckweed on the surface, you can’t tell if the stream is one inch deep or a hundred fathoms. – Vikram Seth
I’m actually a very lazy person. Most of the time, I’m happy to sit around and stare. Or watch bad TV soaps. It’s quite rare for me to get inspired by anything, but it could be something small. A view of the Serpentine. A snatch of music. Or a little shred of conversation overheard on a bus, such as, ‘You also will marry someone of my choice.’ – Vikram Seth
As for what I listen to after writing, it could be anything – but I’ve noticed that if the current book contains music from one tradition, it is music from another tradition that most relaxes me. – Vikram Seth
Poetry, I think, intensifies the reader’s experience. If it’s a humorous facet of the story, poetry makes it more exuberant. If it’s a sad facet, poetry can make it more poignant. – Vikram Seth
I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature. – 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
I am certainly not allergic to causes – particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance. – Vikram Seth
You have to learn a few things, which you do along the way, but basically, poetry is a matter of the ear. Iambic pentameters or what constitutes a stanza comes naturally – your ears will know. – Vikram Seth
Fiction basically is a form of gossip where you want to enter other people’s lives, the lives of people you don’t know, and you want to know what’s going to happen to them. – Vikram Seth
My main motivation is not to get bored. I’m just hoping I get a vaguely maverick reputation. – Vikram Seth
Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a job in a bank and decide to paint, like Krishan Khanna? They want to convey something. – 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
Revision has its own peculiar pleasures and its own peculiar frustrations. The ground rules are already established; the characters already exist. You don’t have to bring the characters to life, but you do have to make them more convincing. – Vikram Seth
I don’t read as much as people may expect. In fact, sometimes I feel that I should probably read more, but then I do believe that one of the big problems of our times is that there’s too much reading and not enough thinking. – Vikram Seth
I am careful about fiction. A novel is not a tract or an essay. If I want to write about land reforms, or Hindu-Muslim relations, or position of women, I can do it as it affects my characters as in ‘A Suitable Boy.’ I could only write about issues specifically through essays. But I’ll do that only if I have something worthwhile to say. – Vikram Seth
If you were to ask me to pick my favourite author, well, there are so many of them, I’d really just have to say the first names that came to mind, and I’m sure that I’ll later think ‘Oh, I should have mentioned that one.’ – Vikram Seth
I think if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well. – Vikram Seth
When I realised that I had feelings for men as well as women, at first I was worried and frightened, and there was a certain amount of ‘Who am I? Am I a criminal?’ and so on. It took me a long time to come to terms with myself. Those were painful years – painful then and painful to look back on. – Vikram Seth
Do not write if there is no tremendous urge to do so. At the heart, there must be an inspiration or muse or one of those old-fashioned things. Else, why bore yourself, destroy other people’s interest and kill trees? – 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
Of course, a law that is selectively used is in one aspect even worse than a law that is generally used because it puts a lot of power in individuals’ hands and makes government a rule, not of laws, but of people. – 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 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
