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
… he remained restrained and strangely composed. It was a composure born of extreme provocation. It stemmed from a lucidity that lies beyond rage.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the power of maintaining composure in the face of provocation, suggesting that true strength comes from clarity and control rather than emotional outbursts.
Arundhati Roy’s quote reflects on the idea that even in moments of intense provocation, one can choose to remain composed and restrained. This composure comes not from a lack of emotion but rather from a deep understanding and lucidity that transcends anger. It emphasizes the strength found in restraint and the ability to navigate challenging situations with clarity, suggesting that true courage is not just in reacting, but in maintaining one’s poise despite external pressures.
Themes
ComposureClarityRestraintProvocationStrength
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about emotional intelligence, one might quote this to illustrate the importance of staying calm under pressure.
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
I inherited depression from my mother's side of the family. Her father committed suicide. She committed suicide the year before I went to the moon.
Buzz AldrinRead
I'm not afraid of dying I'm afraid of not trying
Jay-ZRead
There was no way to laugh anymore, to love, to care, and there was a sense of guilt in having survived when others had been killed. I turned into a worse workaholic than I had already been by trying to work myself into the ground.
Romeo DallaireRead
I was as afraid as the next man in my time and maybe more so. But with the years, fear had come to be regarded as a form of stupidity to be classed with overdrafts, acquiring a venereal disease or eating candies. Fear is a child's vice and while I loved to feel it approach, as one does with any vice, it was not for grown men and the only thing to be afraid of was the presence of true and imminent danger in a form that you should be aware of and not be a fool if you were responsible for others.
Ernest HemingwayRead
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
Audre LordeRead
Yesterday from my office window I saw a crippled girl negotiating her way across the street, her shoulders squarely braced. At each jerky movement her hair flew back like an annunciatory angel, and I saw she was the only dancer on the street.
Elizabeth SmartRead