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
The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Awareness leads to accountability, and remaining silent on issues is as significant as speaking out.
This quote by Arundhati Roy emphasizes the idea that gaining awareness about a situation or injustice comes with the responsibility to act. Once you have been exposed to the truth, choosing not to respond or remain silent is also a conscious decision that carries moral weight, as ignorance is no longer an option. It suggests that awareness and accountability are intricately linked, and one cannot claim innocence after choosing to ignore what has been revealed.
Themes
AwarenessAccountabilitySilenceTruthPolitical Action
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about social justice during a community meeting.
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
Not all thinking and all emotion are of the ego. They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become "I".
Eckhart TolleRead
What am I? Do I know? I am a man: quite simply, a 'breather.'
Marcel DuchampRead
While we wait for life, life passes
Seneca The YoungerRead
Mind is nothing but dreams and dreams - dreams of the past, dreams of the future, dreams of how things should be, dreams of great ambitions, achievements. Dreams and desires, that is the stuff mind is made of. But it surrounds you like a China Wall. And because of it the fish remains unaware of the ocean.
RajneeshRead
It seems that the whole world is beginning to decay, and that its putrefaction has chosen to spread outward from here, from the land of the Pashtuns, where desertification proceeds at a steady, implacable crawl even in the consciences and intellects of men.
Yasmina KhadraRead
Remembrance is a form of meeting.
Khalil GibranRead