Quotes by Vikram Seth

About Vikram Seth:

Vikram Seth is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth's collections of poetry such as Mappings and Beastly Tales are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of what you know, and the other nine-tenths isn't visible and never mind if that part is pure styrofoam!

Vikram Seth

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

Vikram Seth

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

Vikram Seth

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

Vikram Seth

Realism hasn't fallen out of favor with most people, who are interested in people's lives rather than gymnastics of style or literary trends. It's a certain kind of academic who undervalues realism, largely because it is not amenable to endless exege...

Vikram Seth

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

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

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

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

Basically, my mother couldn't hold a tune and when I was a baby, a rather tactless baby, I would ask her not to sing... you can't get to sleep if someone is singing off key nearby.

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

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

Vikram Seth

The problem with too beautiful a view is that it's alright for the mulling stage. But for the writing stage, you want to be somewhere without a view, especially if it is very different from what you're writing.

Vikram Seth

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

Vikram Seth

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

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

The point really is that a writer tends to write a book that he or she tends to write. It's as simple as that. Of course, it's important to make a living and all that, but the main impulse as far as I'm concerned - and I'm sure as other writers are c...

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

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

Vikram Seth

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

Vikram Seth

Author Bio

  • NameVikram Seth
  • DescriptionIndian writer
  • BornJune 20, 1952
  • CountryIndia
  • ProfessionPoet; Novelist; Writer
  • WorksA Suitable Boy; The Golden Gate; An Equal Music
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship; Padma Shri; Sahitya Akademi Award