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.
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
There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.
Charles DarwinRead
Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity
John DonneRead
Time will discover everything to posterity; it is a babbler, and speaks even when no question is put.
EuripidesRead
Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.
Hannah ArendtRead
The emotional reaction in the peak experience has a special flavor of wonder, of awe, of reverence, of humility and surrender before the experience as before something great.
Abraham MaslowRead
A chair is the first thing you need when you don’t really need anything, and is therefore a peculiarly compelling symbol of civilization. For it is civilization, not survival, that requires design.
Ralph CaplanRead