Indian - Writer | March 17, 1963 -
Much of what we regard as truth in the war on terror is actually rather suspect.
Amitava Kumar
TruthWarRatherMuchSuspect
Long ago, when I was in higher secondary school in Delhi, I read an essay by George Orwell in which he said there was a voice in his head that put into words everything he was seeing. I realised I did that, too, or maybe I started doing it in imitation.
WordsSchoolVoiceDoingSeeing
In the U.S., the FBI or the people I met from the Department of Justice might be ignorant about Islam or about the East more generally, but I felt they were less willing to make blanket judgments about Muslims. This caution was less evident with some of the authorities I met in India.
JusticePeopleIndiaIslamIgnorant
You ask a politician a question, like, why they ran in an election, and you'll hear, I assume, something about wanting to contribute to the community or bring about social justice. I had no such high goals.
GoalsCommunityJusticeYouElection
I identify in some measure with each of my characters.
MeasureIdentifySomeCharacters
With non-fiction, there is the struggle to be accurate. With fiction, it is a bit different: the desire to let imagination take you to new places.
StruggleImaginationYouNewDesire
We take literature too seriously.
LiteratureSeriouslyTakeToo
Bad writing as a conscious goal is liberating for students: They are freed to be creative in a new and different way.
CreativeWritingBadGoalNewWay
I'm generalizing wildly, but academic books find safety in explanations that reduce the chaos of social life.
LifeSafetyChaosFindAcademic
To write what is not dead on the page, one has to be open to all kinds of disturbances and challenges and confusion.
ChallengesPageDeadWriteConfusion
I like listening to Garrison Keillor's 'The Writer's Almanac' with my daughter.
DaughterListeningLikeWriter
The radio stations will happily recycle a badly worded statement by a politician all day but will steer clear of broadcasting more than once or twice a poem by Tomas Transtromer or Rita Dove.
DayWillMoreRadioTwiceStatement
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