“People have been very resistant to giving me more than the standard amount of money. So I keep making films on a similar scale. Which is fine, but also frustrating.” PeopleGivingHas BeensFilmFineAmountStandardsScalesFrustrating Author:Mike Leigh
“So much of writing is fed by vanity and the feeling that what you are doing is the most important thing in the world and it has not been done before and only you can do it. Without these feelings, many writers would not be able to write anything at all.” WorldWritingImportantDoneFeelingsAbleCan DoImportant ThingsVanityFedsYou Can Do It Author:Pankaj Mishra
“If you think that what you're doing is not all that important in the larger scheme of things and that you're just an insignificant creature in the whole wide world, which is full of six billion people, and that people are born and die every day and it makes no difference to future generations what you write, and that writing and reading are increasingly irrelevant activities, you'd probably never get out of bed.” PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWritingImportantWholeDiesReadingBornDifferencesGenerationsActivityBedCreaturesSixWideBillionsSchemesIrrelevantInsignificantFuture GenerationWriting And Reading Author:Pankaj Mishra
“You need to work yourself up into some kind of a state every morning and believe that you are doing something terribly important upon which the future of literature, if not the world, depends. Buddhism tells you that this is just a foolish fantasy. So, I try not to think too much about Buddhism early in the morning. From noon on, I think about it.” IfsThinkingWorldNeedsTryingBelieveKindImportantStatesLiteratureMorningFantasyToo MuchBuddhismDependsFoolishEvery MorningNoon Author:Pankaj Mishra
“I don't feel any great need to subscribe to a certain notion of Buddhism that says "You have to do this" or "You have to do that." Buddhism does not prescribe rituals or prohibitions in the way many religions do.” WayNeedsFeelsDoeCertainBuddhismNotionRitualProhibition Author:Pankaj Mishra
“The Buddha would not have liked people to call themselves Buddhist. To him that would have been a fundamental error because there are no fixed identities. He would have thought that someone calling himself a Buddhist has too much invested in calling himself a Buddhist.” PeopleHas BeensToo MuchIdentityCallingFundamentalsErrorsBuddhistFixed Author:Pankaj Mishra
“I meditate at airports because those are the places where I’m extremely tense, and I often meditate while I’m walking down the street. I have a thought and become aware of that thought and thereby create another level of awareness.” LevelsStreetsAwarenessWalkingAirportsTense Author:Pankaj Mishra
“The whole idea of mindfulness is all about having a second-level monitoring of your thoughts and being able to recognize them as being negative or harmful before they become a part of your being, before they become some kind of action like writing an angry letter to someone or speaking too strongly to someone.” WritingKindIdeasWholeAbleActionLevelsMindfulnessNegativeLettersAngryMonitoring Author:Pankaj Mishra
“I don't think of myself as particularly earnest. I have long bouts of cynicism and skepticism. So much of my early life was full of uncertainties. It still is. My "Buddha book" expresses that. Perhaps that's what created this impression of earnestness.” ThinkingLongStillsBookImpressionUncertaintyCynicismSkepticismEarnestEarnestnessEarly Life Author:Pankaj Mishra
“The ’60s was the last time when large groups of people in the West searched for alternative modes of being. In a society like India’s, which is still not fully modern or totally organized, and has a great deal of tolerance for otherness in general, they find the cultural license to try other things, to be whatever they want to be.” PeopleWantTryingLastsDealsGroupsModernIndiaWestToleranceAlternativesOrganizedLast TimeLicenseOthernessLarge Groups Author:Pankaj Mishra