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Quote by Jhumpa Lahiri

“This is the private morphology of a family, of two people who fall in love and have children: an enterprise as mundane as it is utterly specific. All at once I see how they form an ingenious organism, an impenetrable collective.”

Quote by Jhumpa Lahiri

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Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri is an Indian-American author known for her insightful exploration of immigration and multiculturalism. Her works often focus on the inner world of second-generation immigrants, delving into themes of identity, belonging, and cultural conflict. Born on July 11, 1967, Lahiri graduated from Brown University and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. more

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“But there’s a less obvious yet surprisingly powerful explanation for introverts’ creative advantage—an explanation that everyone can learn from: introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck once observed, introversion “concentrates the mind on the tasks in hand, and prevents the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.” In other words, if you’re in the backyard sitting under a tree while everyone else is clinking glasses on the patio, you’re more likely to have an apple fall on your head. (Newton was one of the world’s great introverts. William Wordsworth described him as “A mind forever / Voyaging through strange seas of Thought alone.”)”

“Υπάρχει μια μοναξιά που μπορείς να τη λικνίσεις. Μπράτσα σταυρωμένα, γόνατα μαζεμένα ψηλά.. ξανά και ξανά η ίδια κίνηση, ανόμοια μ’ εκείνη του πλοίου, μαλακώνει και συγκρατεί αυτόν που λικνίζεται. Είναι εσωτερική – σε τυλίγει σφιχτά σαν επιδερμίδα. Υπάρχει και μια μοναξιά που περιπλανιέται. Κανένα λίκνισμα δεν την καθηλώνει. Είναι ζωντανή και αυτόνομη. Είναι στεγνή και διάχυτη και κάνει τον ήχο των ποδιών σου που φεύγουν να μοιάζει σαν να έρχεται από τόπο πολύ μακρινό.”

“See," she said, "I can hold on to you while everything else changes." And she thought she was safe and so, in that safety, could face whatever was to come. And then all of a sudden that you is gone-- that person, that family, that home, that job (maybe even that occupation), maybe even that country, that world-- and there's nothing to hold onto at all, and that self, that life, is gone as well, and yet more self--truer self--than ever before. And how can that all be so true at the same time? And yet it is.”

“Moment of adorable silence. Men fall silent. But the song of the world rises and I, a prisoner chained deep in the cave, am filled with delight before I have time to desire. Eternity is here and I was hoping for it. Now I can speak. I do not know what I could wish for rather than this continued presence of self with self. What I want now is not happiness but awareness. One thinks one has cut oneself off from the world, but it is enough to see an olive tree upright in the golden dust, or beaches glistening in the morning sun, to feel this separation melt away. Thus with me. I become aware of the possibilities for which I am responsible. Every minute of life carries with it its miraculous value, and its face of eternal youth.”