Home / Quotes / Quote by Pankaj Mishra

Quote by Pankaj Mishra

“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.”

Quote by Pankaj Mishra

Author

Pankaj Mishra is an Indian-born British essayist and historian, recognized for his insightful and critical essays on history, politics, and culture. Born in 1969, he has gained attention for his exploration of the complexities of modernity and its effects on the world. more

You May Also Like

“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.”

“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.”

Ifs Thinking World Needs Trying Believe Kind Important States Literature Morning Fantasy Too Much Buddhism Depends Foolish Every Morning Noon

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.”

Way Needs Feels Doe Certain Buddhism Notion Ritual Prohibition

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.”

People Has Beens Too Much Identity Calling Fundamentals Errors Buddhist Fixed

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.”

Levels Streets Awareness Walking Airports Tense

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.”

Writing Kind Ideas Whole Able Action Levels Mindfulness Negative Letters Angry Monitoring

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.”

Thinking Long Stills Book Impression Uncertainty Cynicism Skepticism Earnest Earnestness Early 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.”

People Want Trying Lasts Deals Groups Modern India West Tolerance Alternatives Organized Last Time License Otherness Large Groups

Author:Pankaj Mishra

“I suppose I've become less judgmental about individuals leading lives according to false ideas and false consciousness, because sometimes entire societies are prey to false ideologies and national delusions.”

Ideas Sometimes Individual Consciousness Ideology Delusion Prey Judgmental

Author:Pankaj Mishra

“I've never really felt that being part of a literary community is all that important. It can be extremely detrimental to a writer. It can damage successful writers by giving them an exalted sense of what they've done, and it can crush less successful writers by infecting them with envy and malice at an early stage in their careers.”

Giving Important Done Felt Community Careers Successful Stage Envy Damage Crush Malice Exalted Detrimental

Author:Pankaj Mishra