Quotessence
Home / Authors / Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleWorldWarWayIndiaThinkingIfsCountryHas BeensStatesKnowsWantGovernmentHumansPoliticalShouldWeaponsAmericaDemocracyFighting

Famous Arundhati Roy Quotes

“When the United States invaded Iraq, a New York Times/CBS News survey estimated that 42 percent of the American public believed that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And an ABC news poll said that 55 percent of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein directly supported al-Qaeda. None of this opinion is based on evidence (because there isn’t any).”

WorldSaidStatesUnitedOpinionUnited StatesNew YorkNewsPercentEvidenceResponsibleTradeIraqAlsSeptemberSaddamHusseinPollsSeptember 11New York TimesSurveysAl QaedaPentagonWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterSeptember 11th
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“Iraq was only the latest in a succession of countries. Earlier, there was Cuba, Nicaragua, Libya, Granada, Panama. But this time it wasn't just your ordinary brand of friendly neighborhood frenzy. It was frenzy with a purpose. It ushered in an old doctrine in a new bottle: the doctrine of preemptive strike, also known as the United States can do whatever the hell it wants, and that's official. The war against Iraq has been fought and won, and no weapons of mass destruction have been found, not even a little one.”

WantLittlesHas BeensWarCountryStatesPurposeFoundCan DoUnitedKnownUnited StatesHellWeaponsMassOrdinaryDestructionIraqStrikesDoctrineBrandsOfficialsNeighborhoodFriendlyBottlesCubaSuccessionWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionFrenzyLibyaNicaraguaPanamaGranada
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“When was the last time the United States won a war? You know, it lost in Vietnam. It's lost in Afghanistan. It's lost in Iraq. And it will not be able to contain the situation. It is hemorrhaging. It is now - you know, of course you can continue with drone attacks, and you can continue these targeted killings, but on the ground, a situation is being created which no army - not America, not anybody - can control. And it's just, you know, a combination of such foolishness, such a lack of understanding of culture in the world.”

KnowsWorldWarStatesAbleLastsAmericaCultureCoursesLostUnderstandingUnitedSituationUnited StatesArmyKillingIraqCombinationAfghanistanVietnamLast TimeFoolishnessDronesLack Of Understanding
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“There was a time when the women of Afghanistan - at least in Kabul - were out there. They were allowed to study, they were doctors and surgeons, walking free, wearing what they wanted. That was when it was under Soviet occupation. Then the United States starts funding the mujahideen. Reagan called them Afghanistan's "founding fathers." It reincarnates the idea of "jehad," virtually creates the Taliban.”

IdeasStatesWantedFatherUnitedUnited StatesStudyWalkingDoctorsOccupationAfghanistanSovietFoundingFundingSurgeonsTalibanKabulMujahideen
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“In 2001, we were told that the war in Afghanistan was a feminist mission. The marines were liberating Afghan women from the Taliban. Can you really bomb feminism into a country? And now, after 25 years of brutal war - 10 years against the Soviet occupation, 15 years of US occupation - the Taliban is riding back to Kabul and will soon be back to doing business with the United States.”

YearsWarCountryStatesUnitedUnited StatesFeminismFeministMissionsBombsOccupationAfghanistanSovietRidingBrutalMarineLiberatingTalibanAfghanKabul
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“Talk loud enough about human rights and it gives the impression of democracy at work, justice at work. There was a time when the United States waged war to topple democracies, because back then democracy was a threat to the Free Market. Countries were nationalising their resources, protecting their markets.... So then, real democracies were being toppled. They were toppled in Iran, they were toppled all across Latin America, Chile.”

GivingHumansWarRealCountryStatesEnoughAmericaJusticeUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyRightsResourcesThreatHuman RightsImpressionLoudIranLatinFree MarketLatin AmericaChile
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“Now we're in a situation where democracy has been taken into the workshop and fixed, remodeled to be market-friendly. So now the United States is fighting wars to instal democracies. First it was topple them, now it's instal them, right? And this whole rise of corporate-funded NGOs in the modern world, this notion of CSR, corporate social responsibility - it's all part of a New Managed Democracy. In that sense, it's all part of the same machine.”

WorldFirstsHas BeensWarStatesWholeFightingSocialUnitedResponsibilitySituationUnited StatesDemocracyTakenModernMachinesNotionCorporateFixedFriendlySocial ResponsibilityModern WorldWorkshopsDemocracies HaveCorporate Social Responsibility
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“If you look at the history of the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller, in Latin America, in Indonesia, where almost a million people, mainly Communists, were killed by General Suharto, who was backed by the CIA, in South Africa, in the US Civil Rights Movement - or even now, it's very disturbing. They have always worked closely with the US State Department.”

PeopleIfsLooksStatesAmericaMillionsRightsMovementFoundationSouthCivil RightsDepartmentLatinCommunistSouth AfricaDisturbingIndonesiaCiaCivil Rights MovementLatin America
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“Our tragedy today is not just that millions of people who called themselves communist or socialist were physically liquidated in Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, not just that China and Russia, after all that revolution, have become capitalist economies, not just that the working class has been ruined in the United States and its unions dismantled, not just that Greece has been brought to its knees, or that Cuba will soon be assimilated into the free market - it is also that the language of the Left, the discourse of the Left, has been marginalised and is sought to be eradicated.”

PeopleHas BeensStatesTodayLeftLanguageUnitedClassMillionsUnited StatesEconomyRevolutionTragedyUnionsIraqChinaRussiaKneesIranCommunistAfghanistanVietnamCapitalistSocialistWorking ClassDiscourseRuinedFree MarketGreeceIndonesiaCubaCapitalist Economy
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“I think the Occupy movement will, or at least should, become a protean movement of ideas, as well as action, where the element of surprise remains with the protesters. We need to preserve the element of an intellectual ambush and a physical manifestation that takes the government and the police by surprise. It has to keep re-imagining itself, because holding territory may not be something the movement will be allowed to do in a state as powerful and violent as the United States.”

ThinkingNeedsShouldWellsMayIdeasStatesGovernmentActionUnitedPowerfulUnited StatesMovementElementsIntellectualPoliceRemainsSurpriseViolentPreservesManifestationTerritoryAmbushElement Of SurpriseOccupy Movement
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“We often confuse or loosely use the ideas of crony capitalism or neoliberalism to actually avoid using the word "capitalism", but once you've actually seen, let's say, what's happening in India and the United States - that this model of US economics packaged in a carton that says "democracy" is being forced on countries all over the world, militarily if necessary, has in the United States itself resulted in 400 of the richest people owning wealth equivalent [to that] of half of the population.”

PeopleIfsWorldIdeasCountryStatesUseWealthUnitedHalfUnited StatesDemocracyModelsHappeningsCapitalismEconomicsIndiaPopulationNeoliberalismCroniesCrony Capitalism
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each of the prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade. Each of their screams was ours. When they were humiliated, we were humiliated. The U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq - mostly volunteers in a poverty draft from small towns and poor urban neighborhoods - are victims just as much as the Iraqis of the same horrendous process, which asks them to die for a victory that will never be theirs.”

ChildrenWarStatesDiesFightingAsksProcessPoorUnitedPovertyUnited StatesVictoryTownsOur ChildrenVictimSoldierIraqNeighborhoodPrisonerScreamAntiwarUrbanVolunteerSmall TownComradeHumiliatedAbu Ghraib
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“Privatisation is presented as being the only alternative to an inefficient, corrupt state. In fact, it is not a choice at all... it is a mutually profitable business contract between the private company (preferably foreign) and the ruling elite of the Third World”

WorldStatesFactsChoicesBusinessCompanyThirdsAlternativesContractsElitesRulingProfitableThird WorldProfitable Business
Book:Power Politics: The Reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin
Create image