When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced.
Interpretation
A profound connection with a book can profoundly change a reader's mind and spirit.
This quote by Salman Rushdie suggests that the experience of loving a book imprints a lasting impact on the reader. Just as radioactive fallout can alter the landscape, a deep emotional or intellectual connection with a book transforms the reader's inner world, influencing their thoughts, feelings, and future insights; some ideas may no longer be nurtured, while new, unexpected perspectives can emerge.
In practice
During a book club meeting, someone could reference this quote to discuss how certain books have shaped their identities.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
I've gained a lot from James Joyce, Tolstoy, Chekhov and R. K. Narayan. While writing, I try to see if the story is going to radiate spokes. Their literature has always done that and gifted me beautiful things.
you can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction
I know I'm a rare person, a trained scientist who writes fiction, because so few contemporary novelists engage with science.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.
A boy's story is the best that is ever told.
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