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"The reactions haven't differed; the concerns have been different. When I read for a predominantly Indian audience, there are more questions that are based on issues of identity and representation."
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"You are created with your special features that you need to fulfill your destiny and why it is so important to accept them."

"If a man realizes who he is, he will not react to the negative things surrounding him."

"What is inherent inside you is your uniqueness and peculiarity."

"There is no man in this world that God created to be a shadow of other people."

"Your discovery and realization of your personality for the well-being of humanity is much more essential."

"Many of us will not realize who we are because we do not want to go through the pain and trials."

"knowledge of who we are prevents us from being distracted by the demands of our surroundings."

"Aren't we all homeless without a home inside our mind?"

"You don't need to see yourself through the delusional eyes of the society. It's the society that needs to see you, through your eyes."
Explore more quotes by Jhumpa Lahiri

"You know, since the reviews have come out and people have reacted to it, I've realized that is in a sense what has happened. But as I was writing them, I didn't feel a part of any tradition. I think that would have been too overwhelming, in a sense."

"I would not send a first story anywhere. I would give myself time to write a number of stories."

"It's easy to set a story anywhere if you get a good guidebook and get some basic street names, and some descriptions, but, for me, yes, I am indebted to my travels to India for several of the stories."

"For years, I sort of would try to write a story that somehow fit the title. And I don't think it happened for maybe another four years that I actually thought of a story, the plot of a story that corresponded to that phrase."

"I've never had Internet access. Actually, I have looked at things on other people's computers as a bystander. A few times in my life I've opened email accounts, twice actually, but it's something I don't want in my life right now."

"He told me he was working as an interpreter in a doctor's office in Brookline, Massachusetts, where I was living at the time, and he was translating for a doctor who had a number of Russian patients. On my way home, after running into him, I just heard this phrase in my head."

"I can't tell you exactly how I found it. It was just a process of writing a lot of stories and reading a lot of stories that I admired and just working and working until the sentences sounded right and I was satisfied with them."

"Interpreter of Maladies is the title of one of the stories in the book. And the phrase itself was something I thought of before I even wrote that story."

"Some Indians will come up and say that a story reminded them of something very specific to their experience. Which may or may not be the case for non-Indians."

"When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough."
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