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
Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wars are often driven by self-interest rather than noble ideals.
Arundhati Roy's quote highlights the complex motivations behind wars, suggesting that they are rarely undertaken for genuinely selfless reasons. Instead, she implies that underlying political, economic, and strategic interests are the true catalysts for conflict, challenging the notion that wars are fought for the greater good.
Themes
WarSelf-InterestAltruismConflictMotivation
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on the motives behind historical conflicts, this quote can illustrate the complexity of warfare.
More from Arundhati Roy
All quotes βWhen 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.
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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.
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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.
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
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