top of page
"At 6:30, which was when the national news began, my father raised the volume and adjusted the antennas. Usually I occupied myself with a book, but that night my father insisted that I pay attention."
Standard
Customized
Exlpore more Family quotes

"My mother is my friendWho shares with me her breadAll my hopelessness cured!Her company makes me secured!"

"This is part of what a family is about, not just love, but letting others know there's someone who is watching out for them. It's what I missed so much when my mother died-what I call your 'spiritual security'-knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame."

"My mama is my feeding bottle... She never goes empty no matter how deep I sip! Thank you mum!"

"Have you ever observed that when a man gets a son he takes all the credit, and when he gets a daughter he blames his wife? And if they do not breed at all, we say it is because her womb is barren. We do not say it is because his seed is bad."
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."

"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."
bottom of page