Adrija > Adrija's Quotes

“But everyone knows no matter how good things are, it is not possible for families to live together forever.”
― Perumal Murugan, Fire Bird

“Sometimes, when I’m careless, I think survival is easy: you just keep moving forward with what you have, or what’s left of what you were given, until something changes—or you realize, at last, that you can change without disappearing, that all you had to do was wait until the storm passes you over and you find that—yes—your name is still attached to a living thing.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink of an eye, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you’re born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass

“..We were born in 1948. Do you believe in nakath?’
Any musician or sportsperson worth their sweat will tell you that
timing is all. Aside from believing in yakas and curses, Lankans also
believe in nakath, in the auspiciousness of time, extending Feng Shui to
the passing of moments. On Sinhala and Tamil New Year, if you face
west and light a lamp at 6.48 a.m., you will receive joy; if you face north
and spark up at 7.03 a.m., the sky will fall.
‘I don’t believe in nakath.’
‘How does 1948 sound to you? Auspicious or suspicious?’
...
‘You watch your mouth. Do you know which countries were born in
1948?’
The Benz halts in traffic, but there are winds in every direction. ‘If
this land is cursed, it is because of men like Wijeratne and Solomon Dias.
And because of those who protect them,’ you call out, emboldened by the
distance between the creature and you.
The creature yells out the names of five countries. And the Benz
disappears with the gargoyle on its hood. ‘I’ll be watching you,’ it snarls
and you see it no more. But the five names that it called out echo in your
ears. ‘Burma. Israel. North Korea. Apartheid South Africa. Sri Lanka. All
born in ’48.’
It doesn’t matter if Maali Almeida believes in nakath or not. Because
it appears that the universe most certainly does.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“All stories are recycled and all stories are unfair. Many get luck, and
many get misery. Many are born to homes with books, many grow up in
the swamps of war. In the end, all becomes dust. All stories conclude
with a fade to black.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“We are educated Colombo Tamils. We must be careful and not attract
attention. You understand, no?’
You think of the lottery of birth and how everything else is
mythology, stories the ego tells itself to justify fortune or explain away
injustice. You wonder if you should hold your tongue.
‘Uncle, this country was inherited by arrack-swillers who sent their
children to British schools. Mostly Sinhala – but not all. What they all
were was Colombians. And being an English-speaking Colombian
exempts us from the rest of this country’s sufferings.’
‘I didn’t know there were Marxists left in this country,’ says Stanley,
giving you the fakest of smiles as he rises to leave.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“They burned everything. Everything I did. Everything I saw. All
gone.’
‘It takes more than photos to stop this train, putha. Leave your pity
party, brother. Think of why you were Down There. What was your
purpose? Was it just gambling and taking photos and squeezing cock?’
‘I was there to witness. That is all. All those sunrises and all those
massacres existed because I filmed them. Now, they are as dead as me.’
‘You can whine. Or you can work.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“Who do you blame for this
mess? Was it the colonials who screwed us for centuries? Or the
superpowers that are screwing us now? Who screwed us?’
‘The Portuguese assumed the missionary position. The Dutch took us
from behind. By the time the Brits came along, we were already on our
knees, with our hands behind our backs and our mouths open.’
‘I’m glad we were colonised by the British,’ you say.
‘Better than being slaughtered by the French,’ says the Priest.
‘Or enslaved by the Belgians.’
‘Or gassed by the Germans.’
‘Or raped by Spaniards.’
‘Sometimes, when I think of the mess this country is in, I think it
might be better to let the Chinese or the Japanese buy us over, let the
Yanks and the Soviets own our thoughts or let the Indians take care of
our Tamil problem, like we let the Dutch take care of our Portuguese
problem.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“Sena hand-picks the crew for today’s mission and takes them to the
mara tree outside the Palace for a final briefing. ‘This is where I died.
And when they killed me, all I remembered was the pain.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“And even though the photos are black and white, they gleam
incandescent like all the colours of a royal flush. This island is a beautiful
place, despite being filled with fools and savages. And if these photos of
yours are the only ones that outlive you, maybe that’s an ace that you can
keep.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“History
is people with ships and weapons wiping out those who forgot to invent
them. Every civilisation begins with a genocide. It is the rule of the
universe. The immutable law of the jungle, even this one made of
concrete. You can see it in the movement of the stars, and in the dance of
every atom. The rich will enslave the penniless. The strong will crush the
weak.”
― Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“A faraway place with no relatives close by will do just fine.”
― Perumal Murugan, Fire Bird

“A new place. New people. Everything feels new. All the experiences will be new. As long as the curiosity to explore remains, anything will be interesting. You will be the first man to get out of that place which has been paralyzing people for several generations.”
― Perumal Murugan, Fire Bird

“It was money from returning a pittance of land that was given to them like alms. Thanks, but no thanks. It was money from severing ancestral bonds.”
― Perumal Murugan, Fire Bird

“Seven decades on, the subject of Partition is like a well that was once filled with blood. The blood has long dried up, but the well remains, like a gaping hole on the chest of the Indian subcontinent. Those who used to stop by it and kneel against its wall to shed a tear or two have passed on. Their children and grandchildren have moved on: the well no longer falls in their path.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Gazing at Neighbours: Travels Along the Line That Partitioned India