|

|

Advertisements

Bharati Mukherjee Quotes

I had a 2-week courtship with a fellow student in the fiction workshop in Iowa and a 5-minute wedding in a lawyer’s office above the coffee shop where we’d been having lunch that day. And so I sent a cable to my father saying, ‘By the time you get this, Daddy, I’ll already be Mrs. Blaise!’ Picture Quote #1

The United States exists as a sovereign nation. ‘America,’ in contrast, exists as a myth of democracy and equal opportunity to live by, or as an ideal goal to reach Picture Quote #1

My life has gotten a little more complicated than my ability to describe it. That used to be the definition of madness, now it’s just continuous overload Picture Quote #1

My mother’s rules had to do with feminine deportment, so I never played hard enough to break a toy or muddy my dress. My father’s rules had to do with never shaming the family by even a hint of scandal, and not providing business rivals with an opportunity to kidnap me or throw acid in my face Picture Quote #1

I don’t feel the depression the people who are always looking back to the 50s, to ‘Father Knows Best’ feel. I can see the coming of another glorious era Picture Quote #1

As a bookish child in Calcutta, I used to thrill to the adventures of bad girls whose pursuit of happiness swept them outside the bounds of social decency. Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina lived large in my imagination. The naughty girls of Hollywood films flirted and knew how to drive Picture Quote #1

Advertisements

I truly appreciate the special qualities that America and American national myths offer me Picture Quote #1

The picture of Mother Teresa that I remember from my childhood is of a short, sari-wearing woman scurrying down a red gravel path between manicured lawns. She would have in tow one or two slower-footed, sari-clad young Indian nuns. We thought her a freak. Probably wed picked up on unvoiced opinions of our Loreto nuns Picture Quote #1

Mother Teresas detractors have accused her of overemphasizing Calcuttans destitution and of coercing conversion from the defenseless. In the context of lost causes, Mother Teresa took on battles she knew she could win. Taken together, it seems to me, the criticisms of her work do not undermine or topple her overall achievement Picture Quote #1

I feel empowered to be a different kind of writer. The longer I stay here, the more light filters into my work. I feel very American. I belong Picture Quote #1

One of the early tip-offs to me about the enormous changes that were going on with being in a Bangalore house, home, where the young woman from a nearby village, who had been hired to baby sit newborn twins, suddenly said after two weeks of work: ‘I’m sorry, this is too much work, I’m going to try applying for call center jobs. The pay is better.’ Picture Quote #1

Growing up in an old-fashioned Bengali Hindu family and going to a convent school run by stern Irish nuns, I was brought up to revere rules. Without rules, there was only anarchy Picture Quote #1

Advertisements

There was no audience for my books. The Indians didn’t regard me as an Indian and North Americans couldn’t conceive of me of a North American writer, not being white and brought up on wheat germ. My fiction got lost Picture Quote #1

I have to put down roots where I decide to stay. It wasn’t enough for me to be an expatriate Indian in Canada. If I can’t feel that I can make social, political and emotional commitments to a place, I have to find another place Picture Quote #1

What was the duty of the teacher if not to inspire? Picture Quote #1

Bengalis love to celebrate their language, their culture, their politics, their fierce attachment to a city that has been famously dying for more than a century. They resent with equal ferocity the reflex stereotyping that labels any civic dysfunction anywhere in the world ‘another Calcutta.’ Picture Quote #1

I am an American, not an Asian-American. My rejection of hyphenation has been called race treachery, but it is really a demand that America deliver the promises of its dream to all its citizens equally Picture Quote #1

I had never walked on the street alone when I was growing up in Calcutta, up to age 20. I had never handled money. You know, there was always a couple of bodyguards behind me, who took care if I wanted... I needed pencils for school, I needed a notebook, they were the ones who were taking out the money. I was constantly guarded Picture Quote #1

Advertisements

In traditional Hindu families like ours, men provided and women were provided for. My father was a patriarch and I a pliant daughter. The neighborhood I’d grown up in was homogeneously Hindu, Bengali-speaking, and middle-class. I didn’t expect myself to ever disobey or disappoint my father by setting my own goals and taking charge of my future Picture Quote #1

In Hindu societies, especially overprotected patriarchal families like mine, daughters are not at all desirable. They are trouble. And a mother who, as mine did, has three daughters, no sons, is supposed to go and hang herself, kill herself, because it is such an unlucky kind of motherhood to have Picture Quote #1

I’m very moved by chaos theory, and that sense of energy. That quantum physics. We don’t really, in Hindu tradition, have a father figure of a God. It’s about cosmic energy, a little spark of which is inside every individual as the soul Picture Quote #1

Ancestral habits of mind can be constricting; they also confer one’s individuality Picture Quote #1

We do things when it is our time to do them. They do not occur to us until it is time; they cannot be resisted, once their time has come. It’s a question of time, not motive Picture Quote #1

Dullness is a kind of luxury Picture Quote #1

Advertisements

A farmer is dependent on too many things outside his control; it makes for modesty Picture Quote #1

The traveler feels at home everywhere, because she is never at home anywhere Picture Quote #1

What was the function of poetry if not to improve the petty, cautious minds of evasive children? Picture Quote #1

Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Advertisements

Text Quotes

I had a 2-week courtship with a fellow student in the fiction workshop in Iowa and a 5-minute wedding in a lawyer’s office above the coffee shop where we’d been having lunch that day. And so I sent a cable to my father saying, ‘By the time you get this, Daddy, I’ll already be Mrs. Blaise!’ (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) The United States exists as a sovereign nation. ‘America,’ in contrast, exists as a myth of democracy and equal opportunity to live by, or as an ideal goal to reach. (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) My life has gotten a little more complicated than my ability to describe it. That used to be the definition of madness, now it’s just continuous overload. (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) My mother’s rules had to do with feminine deportment, so I never played hard enough to break a toy or muddy my dress. My father’s rules had to do with never shaming the family by even a hint of scandal, and not providing business rivals with an opportunity to kidnap me or throw acid in my face. (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) I don’t feel the depression the people who are always looking back to the 50s, to ‘Father Knows Best’ feel. I can see the coming of another glorious era. (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) As a bookish child in Calcutta, I used to thrill to the adventures of bad girls whose pursuit of happiness swept them outside the bounds of social decency. Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina lived large in my imagination. The naughty girls of Hollywood films flirted and knew how to drive. (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) I truly appreciate the special qualities that America and American national myths offer me (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) The picture of Mother Teresa that I remember from my childhood is of a short, sari-wearing woman scurrying down a red gravel path between manicured lawns. She would have in tow one or two slower-footed, sari-clad young Indian nuns. We thought her a freak. Probably wed picked up on unvoiced opinions of our Loreto nuns (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) Mother Teresas detractors have accused her of overemphasizing Calcuttans destitution and of coercing conversion from the defenseless. In the context of lost causes, Mother Teresa took on battles she knew she could win. Taken together, it seems to me, the criticisms of her work do not undermine or topple her overall achievement (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) I feel empowered to be a different kind of writer. The longer I stay here, the more light filters into my work. I feel very American. I belong (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) One of the early tip-offs to me about the enormous changes that were going on with being in a Bangalore house, home, where the young woman from a nearby village, who had been hired to baby sit newborn twins, suddenly said after two weeks of work: ‘I’m sorry, this is too much work, I’m going to try applying for call center jobs. The pay is better.’ (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) Growing up in an old-fashioned Bengali Hindu family and going to a convent school run by stern Irish nuns, I was brought up to revere rules. Without rules, there was only anarchy (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) There was no audience for my books. The Indians didn’t regard me as an Indian and North Americans couldn’t conceive of me of a North American writer, not being white and brought up on wheat germ. My fiction got lost (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) I have to put down roots where I decide to stay. It wasn’t enough for me to be an expatriate Indian in Canada. If I can’t feel that I can make social, political and emotional commitments to a place, I have to find another place (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) What was the duty of the teacher if not to inspire? (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) Bengalis love to celebrate their language, their culture, their politics, their fierce attachment to a city that has been famously dying for more than a century. They resent with equal ferocity the reflex stereotyping that labels any civic dysfunction anywhere in the world ‘another Calcutta.’ (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) I am an American, not an Asian-American. My rejection of hyphenation has been called race treachery, but it is really a demand that America deliver the promises of its dream to all its citizens equally (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) I had never walked on the street alone when I was growing up in Calcutta, up to age 20. I had never handled money. You know, there was always a couple of bodyguards behind me, who took care if I wanted... I needed pencils for school, I needed a notebook, they were the ones who were taking out the money. I was constantly guarded (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) In traditional Hindu families like ours, men provided and women were provided for. My father was a patriarch and I a pliant daughter. The neighborhood I’d grown up in was homogeneously Hindu, Bengali-speaking, and middle-class. I didn’t expect myself to ever disobey or disappoint my father by setting my own goals and taking charge of my future (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) In Hindu societies, especially overprotected patriarchal families like mine, daughters are not at all desirable. They are trouble. And a mother who, as mine did, has three daughters, no sons, is supposed to go and hang herself, kill herself, because it is such an unlucky kind of motherhood to have (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) I’m very moved by chaos theory, and that sense of energy. That quantum physics. We don’t really, in Hindu tradition, have a father figure of a God. It’s about cosmic energy, a little spark of which is inside every individual as the soul (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) Ancestral habits of mind can be constricting; they also confer one’s individuality (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) We do things when it is our time to do them. They do not occur to us until it is time; they cannot be resisted, once their time has come. It’s a question of time, not motive (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) Dullness is a kind of luxury (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) A farmer is dependent on too many things outside his control; it makes for modesty (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) The traveler feels at home everywhere, because she is never at home anywhere (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes) What was the function of poetry if not to improve the petty, cautious minds of evasive children? (Bharati Mukherjee Quotes)