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Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy Quotes

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Famous Arundhati Roy Quotes

“People can be extraordinarily resilient and show extraordinary grace and humour even in moments of tribulation. I've always found that it's much easier for people who are not terribly, badly off to lose hope and to be pessimistic. I suppose that when you are in a really serious situation, you have to be present, you have to think about it, there's not much scope for self-pity.”

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Author:Arundhati Roy
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“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.”

LifeTryingLooksUsedJoySimpleForgetWatchesViolenceInspirational LifeMoralitySadRespectRomanticComplicatedPursueNever ForgetInspirational LoveLost LoveRomantic LoveVulgarSimplifyMy Own LifeSaddestUnspeakableVulgarityDisparityInsignificanceBeing Joyful
Book:The Algebra of Infinite Justice
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“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness — and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling — their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.”

IfsShouldBelieveArtIdeasDifferentWarStoriesJoyLiteratureAbilityRevolutionWeaponsShameStrategyLaysNotionRefuseVersionsSellingCorporateEmpiresCollapseSheerOxygenBrillianceMockInevitabilityStubbornnessBrainwashedSiege
Book:War Talk
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“Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe.”

PeopleWarEnoughFightingPowerfulEconomicWeaponsWorkersSoldierRefuseShipsEmpiresProtestMarchWeekendAnti WarAntiwarLoadGlobesDemonstrationDisobedienceColorfulCivil DisobedienceAircraftBoycottStop War
Book:Public Power in the Age of Empire
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“Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstitutred. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.”

LittlesWholeStoriesHouseHoursEventsOrdinaryRemainsLifetimePhotographBonesRuinsClockOutcomesDozenBurnedFurnitureOrdinary Things
Book:The God of Small Things
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“Soviet-style communism failed, not because it was intrinsically evil, but because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to usurp too much power. Twenty-first century market capitalism, American-style, will fail for the same reasons. Both are edifices constructed by human intelligence, undone by human nature.”

PeopleFirstsHumansReasonEvilToo MuchFailingCenturyStyleHuman NatureCapitalismTwentiesCommunismSovietFlawedUndoneEdificeHuman IntelligenceToo Much Power
Book:Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire
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“But what was there to say? Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons. Only that there was a snuffling in the hollows at the base of a lovely throat. Only that a hard honey-colored shoulder had a semicircle of teethmarks on it. Only that they held each other close, long after it was over. Only that what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief. Only that once again they broke the Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much.”

ShouldLongHardTogetherLawNightGriefTearsLaysLovelyShouldersBrokeEmptinessThroatHoneyHideousSpoonsQuietness
Author:Arundhati Roy
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“May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun.”

MayLongStillsDiesBlackSunClearAirTreeMonthsRedRiversHotShrinksCrowBananasBroodingBaffledGorgesWindowpane
Book:The God of Small Things
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“It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined. Over the years, as the memory of Sophie Mol ... slowly faded, the Loss of Sophie Mol grew robust and alive. It was always there. Like a fruit in season. Every season. As permanent as a government job.”

YearsSometimesGovernmentJobsMemoriesLossAliveGrewSeasonsFruitCuriousPermanentLife DeathSophieFadedRobustGovernment Jobs
Book:The God of Small Things
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“They would grow up grappling with ways of living with what happened. They would try to tell themselves that in terms of geological time it was an insignificant event. Just a blink of the Earth Woman's eye. That Worse Things had happened. That Worse Things kept happening. But they would find no comfort in the thought.”

WayTryingEyeEarthGrowsTermGrowing UpHappenedEventsComfortHappeningsInsignificantBlinkGrapplingGeological Time
Book:The God of Small Things
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