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Aravind Adiga

Aravind Adiga Quotes

Writer

Aravind Adiga is an accomplished Indian writer born on October 23, 1974. His works are known for their profound social insight and unique literary style, with notable titles including 'The White Tiger' and 'The Last Man in Tower'.

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All Men India Indian World Country People Cities Knows Poor Book

Famous Aravind Adiga Quotes

“You can't expect a man in a dung heap to smell sweet.”

Men Sweet Smell

Book:The White Tiger

Source: The White Tiger

“A White Tiger keeps no friends. It's too dangerous.”

White Dangerous Tigers No Friends

Book:The White Tiger

Source: The White Tiger

“Iqbal, that great poet, was so right. The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave. To hell with the Naxals and their guns shipped from China. If you taught every poor boy how to paint, that would be the end of the rich in India.”

Ifs World Ends Moments Would Be Beautiful Poor Boys Hell Rich This World Taught Poet Gun India Slave Paint China Great Poet Poor Boy

Book:The White Tiger

Source: The White Tiger

“Neither. I am just one who has woken up while the rest of you are still sleeping.”

Stills Sleep Just One

Book:The White Tiger

Source: The White Tiger

“I’ve lived in several countries and been a disaster everywhere.”

Country Disaster

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Having plenty of living space has to be the greatest luxury in a city, and I guess in some sense Bombay is the antithesis of what living in Canada must be.”

Space Cities Luxury Plenty Canada Antithesis Bombay

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Columbia University, where I went to study in 1993, insisted its undergraduates learn a foreign language, so I discovered French.”

Language Study University Columbia Foreign Language Columbia University

Author:Aravind Adiga

“The coop is guarded from the inside.”

Book:The White Tiger: A Novel

Source: The White Tiger: A Novel

“We are made mysteries to ourselves by the Rooster Coop we are locked in.”

Made Mystery Locked Roosters Genuine Concern

Author:Aravind Adiga

“India's great economic boom, the arrival of the Internet and outsourcing, have broken the wall between provincial India and the world.”

World Economic Broken Wall Internet India Arrivals Outsourcing

Author:Aravind Adiga

“In my family, as in most middle-class Indian families I knew when I was growing up, science and mathematics were held in awe.”

Class Growing Up Growing Middle My Family Mathematics Indian Awe Middle Class

Author:Aravind Adiga

“In India, it's the rich who have problems with obesity. And the poor are darker-skinned because they work outside and often work without their tops on so you can see their ribs.”

Problem Poor Rich India Work Out Obesity Ribs

Author:Aravind Adiga

“At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the west, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society.”

World Trying Important India West Injustice China Like Me Brutal Highlights Great Change

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Too much of Indian writing in English, it seemed to me, consisted of middle-class people writing about other middle-class people - and a small slice of life being passed off as an authentic portrait of the country.”

People Writing Country Class Too Much Middle Indian Middle Class Portraits Slice Of Life

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Mangalore, the coastal Indian town where I lived until I was almost 16, is now a booming city of malls and call-centres. But, in the 1980s, it was a provincial town in a socialist country.”

Country Cities Towns Indian Socialist Centre Malls Coastal Socialist Countries

Author:Aravind Adiga

“I grew up, as many Indians do, in an archipelago of tongues. My maternal grandfather, who was a surgeon in the city of Madras, was fluent in at least four languages and used each of them daily.”

Used Language Cities Four Grew Grew Up Tongue Grandfather Surgeons Fluent Madras

Author:Aravind Adiga

“I am not an original thinker-but I am an original listener.)”

Originals Thinker Listeners

Book:The White Tiger: A Novel

Source: The White Tiger: A Novel

“I am coming back to New York after five years, and it seems that psychics are taking over the city.”

Years Seems Cities Five New York Five Years Psychics Coming Back

Author:Aravind Adiga

“I want to read Keats and Wordsworth, Hemingway, George Orwell.”

Want Wordsworth

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Like most of my friends in school, I was a member of multiple circulating libraries; and all of us, to begin with, borrowed and read the same things.”

School Members My Friends Library Multiple Borrowed

Author:Aravind Adiga

“An honest politician has no goodies to toss around. This limits his effectiveness profoundly, because political power in India is dispersed throughout a multi-tiered federal structure; a local official who has not been paid off can sometimes stop a billion-dollar project.”

Sometimes Political Honest Politician Limits Projects India Paid Structure Dollars Billions Locals Officials Effectiveness Political Power Toss Paid Off

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Greenwich Village always had its share of mind readers, but there are many more these days, and they seem to have moved closer to the mainstream of life in the city. What was crazy 10 years ago is now respectable, even among the best-educated New Yorkers.”

Years Mind Seems Cities Share Crazy Reader Years Ago Moved Educated These Days Village Mainstream Respectable New Yorkers Greenwich Greenwich Village

Author:Aravind Adiga

“I had grown up in a privileged, upper-caste Hindu community; and because my father worked for a Catholic hospital, we lived in a prosperous Christian neighborhood.”

Christian Father Community Catholic Neighborhood Hospitals Privileged Prosperous Castes

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Indians mock their corrupt politicians relentlessly, but they regard their honest politicians with silent suspicion. The first thing they do when they hear of a supposedly 'clean' politician is to grin. It is a cliche that honest politicians in India tend to have dishonest sons, who collect money from people seeking an audience with Dad.”

People Firsts Audience Honest Son Dad Politician India Regard Clean Silent Seeking Suspicion Cliche Mock

Author:Aravind Adiga

“It has always been very difficult for writers to survive commercially in India because the market was so small. But that's not true at all any more. It's one of the world's fastest growing and most vibrant markets for books, especially in English.”

World Book Difficult Growing India

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Like most people who live in India, I complain about corruption, but know that I can live with corrupt men. It is the honest ones I secretly worry about.”

People Knows Men I Can Worry Honest India Corruption Complaining

Author:Aravind Adiga

“Nothing gives us greater pride than the importance of India's scientific and engineering colleges, or the army of Indian scientists at organizations such as Microsoft and NASA. Our temples are not the god-encrusted shrines of Varanasi, but Western scientific institutions like Caltech and MIT, and magazines like 'Nature' and 'Scientific American.”

Giving Greater College Pride Organization Scientist India Importance Army Institutions Western Magazines Indian Temples Engineering Microsoft Nasa Shrines Mit Varanasi

Author:Aravind Adiga

“When I was growing up in the south Indian city of Madras, there were only two political parties that mattered; one was run by a former matinee idol, and the other was run by his former screenwriter.”

Two Running Political Party Cities Growing Up Growing South Former Indian Idols Political Parties Screenwriters Madras

Author:Aravind Adiga

“When I was writing 'The White Tiger' I lived in a building pretty much exactly like the one I described in this novel, and the people in the book are the people I lived with back then. So I didn't have to do much research to find them.”

People Writing Book White Novel Building Research Tigers

Author:Aravind Adiga

About the Author

Born: October 23, 1974
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 79

Related Topics

Men India Indian World Country People Cities Knows Poor Book

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The White TigerRelated source material

The White Tiger: A NovelRelated source material

Last Man in TowerRelated source material

AmnestyRelated source material

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