And I’m not going to get any thinner or any younger, my ass is going to hit the ground, if it hasn’t already–and I want to be with somebody who can still see me in...

American houses…’ she said, peering over her right shoulder and down the street. ‘They always seem to believe that nobody ever loses anything, has lost anything. I find that very sad. Do you know what...

Girls either wanted him or wanted to improve him, but most often a combination of the two. They wanted to improve him until he justified the amount they wanted him.

But I cannot be worrying-worrying all the time about the truth. I have to worry about the truth that can be lived with. And that is the difference between losing your marbles drinking the salty...

You don’t have favourites among your children, but you do have allies.

When the male organ of a man stands erect, two thirds of his intelect go away. And one third of his religion.

It’s such a confidence trick, writing a novel. The main person you have to trick into confidence is yourself. This is hard to do alone.

They were married before they were friends, which is another way of saying:Their marriage was the occasion of their friendship.They were married before they noticed many small differences in background, aspiration, education, ambition. (…)Noting such...

Some writers are the kind of solo violinists who need complete silence to tune their instruments. Others want to hear every member of the orchestra—they’ll take a cue from a clarinet, from an oboe, even....

Sometimes, one wants to have the illusion that one is making ones own life, out of one’s own resources.

Last year, when Zora was a freshman, sophomores had seemed altogether a different kind of human: so very definite in their tastes and opinions, in ther loves and ideas. Zora woke up this morning hopeful...

Right. I look fine. Except I don’t,’ said Zora, tugging sadly at her man’s nightshirt. This was why Kiki had dreaded having girls: she knew she wouldn’t be able to protect them from self-disgust. To...

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

People talk about the happy quiet that can exist between two loves, but this, too, was great; sitting between his sister and his brother, saying nothing, eating. Before the world existed, before it was populated,...

These days, it feels to me like you make a devil’s pact when you walk into this country. You hand over your passport at the check-in, you get stamped, you want to make a little...

All tastes are expressions of belief.

She did what girls generally do when they don’t feel the part: she dressed it instead.

Boys are just boys after all, but sometimes girls really seem to be the turn of a pale wrist, or the sudden jut of a hip, or a clutch of very dark hair falling across...

Early on, for better or worse, I chose whose child I wanted to be: the child of the novel. Almost everything else was subjugated to this ruling passion, reading stories. As a consequence, I can...

They had nothing to say to each other. A five-year age gap between siblings is like a garden that needs constant attention. Even three months apart allows the weeds to grow up between you.

When my little group get together, if we disagree about something, we can sort it out. Example: Mohona Hossain hates Divargiit Singh. Hates all his movies. Hates him with a passion. She likes that other...

Time is how you spend your love.

I want to stay still and to keep moving. I want this life and another.

(Feedback) People become addicted to it. That’s why journalism is so popular, because you want to hear, every day, what people think of what you just wrote. I think a little patience on that front...

Not everyone wants this conventional little life you’re rowing your boat toward. I like my river of fire. And when it’s time for me to go I fully intend to roll off my one-person dinghy...

But why think the more reasons there were to sin, the smaller the sin was?

Jerome said, It’s like, a family doesn’t work anymore when everyone in it is more miserable than they would be if they were alone, You know?

Keisha Blake, whose celebrated will and focus did not leave her much room for angst, watched her friend ascend to the top deck in her new panda-eyed makeup and had a mauvais quart d’heure, wondering...

In the end, your past is not my past and your truth is not my truth and your solution – is not my solution.

Some of us are happy with our African hair, thank you very much. I don’t want some poor Indian girl’s hair. And I wish to God I could buy black hair products from black people...

In the middle of a novel, a kind of magical thinking takes over. To clarify, the middle of the novel may not happen in the actual geographical centre of the novel. By middle of the...

You must live life with the full knowledge that your actions will remain. We are creatures of consequence.

They caught up with each other’s news casually, leaving long, cosy gaps of silence in which to go to work on their muffins and coffees. Jerome – after two months of having to be witty...

They were real people who entertained and argued and existed entirely independently from him, although he had set the thing in motion. They had different thoughts and beliefs. ~ on children growing up.

You realize of course that if it were the other way round there would be a law, there would be an actual law: John versus Jen in the high court. And John would put it...

Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.

And in the past, Archie wondered, was it just that fewer people cheated? Were they more honest, and did they leave their front doors open, did they leave their kids with the neighbors, pay social...

You never know, until it happens, what you will owe the dead.

This is what a woman is: unadorned, after children and work and age, and experience-these are the marks of living.

One just has to look at the thing from a perspective that interests you personally.

More silence; children’s silence, so desperately desired by adults yet eerie when it finally occurs.

He knew that he, Millat, was a Paki no matter where he came from; that he smelled of curry; had no sexual identity; took other people’s jobs; or had no job and bummed off the...

Cos if it’s encyclopedias we’ve got enough, like, information… and if it’s God, you’ve got the wrong house.

Full stories are as rare as honesty.

Then you begin to give up the very idea of belonging. Suddenly this thing, this belonging,it seems like some long, dirty lie … and I begin to believe that birthplaces are accidents, that everything is...

Now, how do the young prepare to meet the old? The same way the old prepare to meet the young: with a little condescension; with low expectation of the other’s rationality; with the knowledge that...

Under every friendship there is a difficult sentence that must be said, in order that the friendship can be survived.

It’s like that quote: ‘If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.’ The choice between a duty or a...

When I write I am trying to express my way of being in the world. This is primarily a process of elimination: once you have removed all the dead language, the second-hand dogma, the truths...

Sacrifice was nine tenths of parenting.