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
Biology designed the dance. Terror timed it. Dictated the rhythm with which their bodies answered each other. As though they already knew that for each tremor of pleasure they would pay with an equal measure of pain. As though they knew that how far they went would be measured against how far they would be taken.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the intricate balance of pleasure and pain in relationships and life experiences.
Arundhati Roy’s quote delves into the complex interplay between joy and suffering within human interactions. It suggests that our experiences of pleasure are often accompanied by an unavoidable cost, highlighting the duality of existence where each moment of happiness may be offset by an equal moment of pain. This resonates with the idea that life is a constant negotiation between what we desire and what we must sacrifice, emphasizing the importance of understanding the rhythms that govern our relationships and experiences.
Themes
BalancePleasurePainRelationshipsDuality
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the complexities of love, you could quote this to illustrate the highs and lows of relationships.
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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.
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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.
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To call someone 'anti-American', indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination.
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