Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thrity Umrigar
Thrity Umrigar

Thrity Umrigar Quotes

Journalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMarriageGriefHeartWaterBanalityBonesChildrenEyeFamilyHate

Famous Thrity Umrigar Quotes

“We are earthbound creatures, Maggie had thought. No matter how tempting the sky. No matter how beautiful the stars. No matter how deep the dream of flight. We are creatures of the earth. Born with legs, not wings, legs that root us to the earth, and hands that allow us to build our homes, hands that bind us to our loved ones within those homes. The glamour, the adrenaline rush, the true adventure, is here, within these homes. The wars, the detente, the coups, the peace treaties, the celebrations, the mournings, the hunger, the sating, all here.”

HomeFamilyDomesticity
Author:Thrity Umrigar
Create image

“She wanted to thank Bhima for her kindness, wanted to explain to her how hot and wonderful life felt when it trickled back into one's veins, wanted to tell her about how cold her heart had felt after this last encounter with Feroz and how Bhima had warmed it again, as if she had held her cold, gray heart between her brown hands and rubbed it until the blood came rushing into it. But a net of shyness fell over Sera as Bhima looked up from the dishes and at her. She had long accepted that Bhima was the only person who knew that Feroz's fists occasionally flew like black vultures over the desert of her body, that Bhima knew more about the strangeness of her marriage than any friend or family member. But now, Sera felt as if Bhima had an eyeglass into her soul, that she had somehow penetrated her body deeper than Feroz ever had. "Better?" Bhima asked unsmiling.”

HeartMarriageAbused Women
Book:The Space Between Us
Create image

“First time since I come to Am'rica, I not with husband or Rekha or in restaurant or store or car or apartment. I's all alone and I loves it. First time I feel everything not borrow. What I mean by that? When I with the husband, I seeing everything through his eyes - moon, sun, sky, tree, parking lot, store, everything. If he feeling sun too hot, I feeling upset. If he cursing the cold, I angry with snow. My brains not thinking my own thoughts.”

WomenMarriageIndependence
Author:Thrity Umrigar
Create image

“And in all the political debates about immigration that have been raging across this country, amid all the easy, glib rhetoric about America being a nation of immigrants, this loss, this toll, this terrible giving up, often goes unmentioned. The popular media focuses on what is gained: freedom, liberty, material wealth, opportunity, independence, the ability to recreate yourself. But here's what is lost: identity, language, family, lovers, friends, pets, routines, hobbies, the names of streets you grew up on, the rhythms of your old neighborhood, your favorite family foods, the color of the sky at dusk. Sometimes, even your name.”

LossLoss Of LoveImmigration Experience
Book:If Today Be Sweet
Create image

“When Radha and I were children, we used to play a game. She would ask, “What is the true color of the world, Didi?” And I would say, “Green.” “Why green?” “Because the trees are green. Grass is green. The new buds on the plants are green. Even the parrots are green. Green is the color of the world.” “But, Didi,” Radha would argue, “the wheat stalks are brown. My body is brown. The field mice are brown. No, the world is brown.” “What about blue?” I would say. “The sky is blue. And it covers the whole world, like a mother who loves and embraces all her children. Radha would fall silent, and I would remember that she had known our mother’s love for even fewer years than I did. So I would take her in my arms and hold her, to make her know what it feels like to be loved. Today I know the truth: The true color of the world is black. Anger is black. Shame and scandal are black. Betrayal is black. Hatred is black. And a roasted, smoking body is Black, Black, Black. The world, after witnessing such cruelty, goes black. The waking up to a changed world is black.”

HateAngerBetrayal
Book:Honor
Create image

“She wanted to explain everything to him—how certain notes of the Moonlight Sonata shredded her heart like wind inside a paper bag; how her soul felt as endless and deep as the sea churning on their left; how the sight of the young Muslim couple filled her with an emotion that was equal parts joy and sadness; and above all, how she wanted a marriage that was different from the dead sea of marriages she saw all around her, how she wanted something finer, deeper, a marriage made out of silk and velvet instead of coarse cloth, a marriage made of clouds and stardust and red earth and ocean foam and moonlight and sonatas and books and art galleries and passion and kindness and sorrow and ecstasy and of fingers touching from under a burqua.”

Marriage
Book:The Space Between Us
Create image

“This is love-not what we say to each other but what we not say. Sometime it just one look exchange. Sometime one word. But underlining everything we say or not say, something else. Something heavy and deep, like when we in bed and looking into each other's eyes. For six years, everything between husband and me was on top, like skin. Now it hidden, like bone and muscle. [] He care for me now. He finally see me. And he like what he see.”

YearsLooksEyeCareBedHusbandSixSkinsHeavyBonesJust OneMusclesOne Word
Author:Thrity Umrigar
Create image

“Or perhaps is is that time doesn't heal wounds at all, perhaps that is the biggest lie of them all, and instead what happens is that each wound penetrates the body deeper and deeper until one day you find that the sheer geography of your bones - the angle of your hips, the sharpness of your shoulders, as well as the luster of your eyes, the texture of your skin, the openness of your smile - has collapsed under the weight of your griefs.”

WellsBodyHappensEyeLyingGriefOne DaySkinsWeightDeeperBonesWoundsShouldersHealHipsOpennessSheerAnglePenetrateGeographyTextureYour SmileSharpnessLuster
Author:Thrity Umrigar
Create image

“India, she now knew, would not be content staying in the background, was nobody's wallpaper, insisted in interjecting itself into everyone's life, meddling with it, twisting it, molding it beyond recognition. India, she had found out, was a place of political intrigue and economic corruption, a place occupied by real people with their incessantly human needs, desires, ambitions, and aspirations, and not the exotic, spiritual, mysterious entity that was a creation of the Western imagination.”

PeopleNeedsHumansRealSpiritualPoliticalDesireFoundImaginationEconomicCreationAmbitionIndiaWesternCorruptionBackgroundsMysteriousRecognitionAspirationStayingEntityIntrigueExoticHuman NeedsIncessantlyMeddlingMolding
Author:Thrity Umrigar
Create image

“I intend to give my eighty-two-year-old dad a copy of God Never Blinks. I will also buy one for a sixteen-year-old friend. This wise, compassionate, and honest book is a blueprint for living a happy, fulfilling life. Its lessons are timeless – and timely.”

GivingYearsTwoBookWiseHonestDadLessonsTwo YearsCopiesCompassionateFulfillingTimelessEightyOld FriendsSixteenBlinkBlueprintsTimelyTwo Year OldsFulfilling LifeGod Never BlinksSixteen Year Olds
Author:Thrity Umrigar
Create image