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
Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstitutred. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on how significant changes in life can occur in a short period and emphasizes the importance of examining and preserving those moments.
Arundhati Roy's quote highlights the transformative power of time, illustrating how a few critical hours can reshape our lives and narratives. It emphasizes the need to reflect on and honor these pivotal moments, as they become the foundation of our stories, much like the remnants of a past disaster that must be acknowledged and understood for their lasting impact on our lives.
Themes
ChangeTimeMemoriesTransformationReflection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to encourage students to reflect on their experiences during a significant life event.
More from Arundhati Roy
All quotes →When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch.
Arundhati RoyRead
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.
Arundhati RoyRead
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.
Arundhati RoyRead
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.
Arundhati RoyRead
To call someone 'anti-American', indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination.
Arundhati RoyRead
Similar quotes
The shift to a cleaner energy economy wont happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.
Barack ObamaRead
There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now.
Nicholas SternRead
We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.
Jim RohnRead
I have seen for the first time in 100 years of conflict, the two peoples - the Israeli people and the Palestinian people - are ahead of their leaderships.
Amos OzRead
That is how you know you've left childhood behind-when you wish for time to go backward.
Alice HoffmanRead
We think we know what it's all about; we think that disability is a really simple thing, and we don't expect to see disabled people in our daily lives.
Stella YoungRead