Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth CBEis an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth's collections of poetry such as Mappings and Beastly Tales are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth20 June 1952
CountryIndia
character frustration peculiar
Revision has its own peculiar pleasures and its own peculiar frustrations. The ground rules are already established; the characters already exist. You don't have to bring the characters to life, but you do have to make them more convincing.
choose-me subjects picks
I don't pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.
silly might dear
Dear though the reader might be, I'd be silly to cater to what the reader wanted.
prayer moving iron
All over India, all over the world, as the sun or the shadow of darkness moves from east to west, the call to prayer moves with it, and people kneel down in a wave to pray to God. Five waves each day - one for each namaaz - ripple across the globe from longitude to longitude. The component elements change direction, like iron filings near a magnet - towards the house of God in Mecca.
jobs giving-up writing
Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a job in a bank and decide to paint, like Krishan Khanna? They want to convey something.
book writing successful
Those books of mine that are remunerative - I'm not talking about poetry here - take years to write, and I am never sure they'll be successful. So writing is a risk in more senses than one.
temptation spite indian
In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian.
dream drinking california
I recall drinking sherry in California and dreaming of England, where I ate dalmoth and dreamed of Delhi. What is the purpose, I wonder, of all this restlessness? I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.
music-is be-good
Good music is good music, but it has to be good.
religious causes intolerance
I am certainly not allergic to causes - particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.
couple eye naps
My eyes close. I am here and not here. A waking nap? A flight to the end of the galaxy and perhaps a couple of billion light-years beyond?
order laziness needs
I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything.
language should novel
So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
imagination music-love competent
I just love music - by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.