To me, there is nothing higher than fiction. Nothing. It is fundamentally who I am. I am a teller of stories. For me, that's the only way I can make sense of the world, with all the dance that it involves.
Arundhati RoyRead
Anything's possible in Human Nature," Chacko said in his Reading Aloud voice. Talking to the darkness now, suddenly insensitive to his little fountain-haired niece. "Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite joy." Of the four things that were Possible in Human Nature, Rahel thought that Infinnate Joy sounded the saddest. Perhaps because of the way Chacko said it. Infinnate Joy. With a church sound to it. Like a sad fish with fins all over.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote explores the complexities of human emotions and nature, particularly focusing on love, madness, hope, and joy.
In this quote, Arundhati Roy delves into the essence of human nature through the eyes of Chacko and Rahel, highlighting the coexistence of powerful emotions such as love, madness, hope, and particularly joy, which is presented as a bittersweet reality. The phrase 'Infinite joy' is contrasted with sadness, suggesting that true joy is often intertwined with deeper, perhaps sorrowful, aspects of existence.
Themes
Human NatureEmotionJoyLoveMadnessHope
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a discussion on the complexities of human emotions in a psychology class.
More from Arundhati Roy
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Caste is about dividing people up in ways that preclude every form of solidarity, because even in the lowest castes, there are divisions and sub-castes, and everyone's co-opted into the business of this hierarchical, silo-ised society.
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When I decided to write 'The God of Small Things', I had been working in cinema. It was almost a decision to downshift from there. I thought that 300 people would read it. But it created a platform of trust.
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In California, there are huge problems because of dams. I'm against big dams, per se, because I think that they are economically unfeasible. They're ecologically unsustainable. And they're hugely undemocratic.
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To call someone 'anti-American', indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination.
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