Amitava Kumar

I didn't know V. S. Naipaul very well, and to a large extent, my acquaintance with him was limited to meetings at literary festivals. ”

Hindi writing, as well as Hindi journalism, is a great gift to Indian writing. ”

I grew up in India during the 1960s and '70s in a meat-eating Hindu family. Only my mother and my grandparents were vegetarians. The rest of us enjoyed eating - on special occasions - chicken or fish or mutton. ”

My own personal conviction is that if I were writing without thinking about how images or how journalism is creating a world for us, I would not be happy about it. ”

All good works of art must ask this question: 'You want to breathe free, yes, but do you know how to kiss?' ”

In 1997, Alain de Botton published his book 'How Proust Can Change Your Life.' I was charmed by it. I remember using it in a course on cultural criticism for a graduate class that had a mix of theorists and creative writers. ”

I'm generalizing wildly, but academic books find safety in explanations that reduce the chaos of social life. ”

You ask a politician a question, like, why they ran in an election, and you'll hear, I assume, something about wanting to contribute to the community or bring about social justice. I had no such high goals. ”

A writer can be subjective, even digressive, or introspective and certainly judgmental. This is a simplification, of course, but as a general rule, it holds true. ”

One of my earliest lessons in guilt was imparted in childhood through the story of the death of Mahatma Gandhi's father. ”