Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth CBEis an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth's collections of poetry such as Mappings and Beastly Tales are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth20 June 1952
CountryIndia
writing listening-to-music bother
I rarely listen to music while writing. If I don't like it, it bothers me, and if I like it, it absorbs me so much I can't write.
order laziness needs
I need my natural laziness to be counteracted by obsession in order to do anything.
eye artist chinese
In a painting, you can't make out whether the artist painted the left eye before the right eye. In Chinese calligraphy, you can see the progression of the artist's stroke.
couple eye naps
My eyes close. I am here and not here. A waking nap? A flight to the end of the galaxy and perhaps a couple of billion light-years beyond?
choose-me subjects picks
I don't pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.
kind force checks
I simply seem to drift. But I sort of allow the drift, because it has a kind of check - it forces me to work harder at what I'm interested in.
ideas existence good-ideas
You can talk good ideas out of existence.
reading stuff interest
I tend to follow a scattershot approach to reading a lot of very diverse subjects interest me, and I'm quite happy to read stuff on any of them.
writing imagine novel
You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.
writing years cases
I spent many years of my life as an economist and demographer. I was finally distracted by writing my novels and poetry. I'm enormously happy that was the case. I feel that with writing I have found my metier.
race rivers water
Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river that had come down to earth so that its waters might flow over the ashes of those long dead, and that would continue to flow long after the human race had, through hatred and knowledge, burned itself out.
heart odds evil
It's not the gods But our own hearts We need to fear. The evil starts Against all odds Not there but here.
temptation spite indian
In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I've remained an Indian.
boys posters burden
There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy.