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Rohinton Mistry Quotes | Quotes said by Rohinton Mistry

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #1

    ...loss is essential, loss is part and parcel of that necessary calamity called life. Mind you, I'm not complaining. Thanks to some inexplicable universal guiding force, it is always the worthless things we lose - slough off, like a moulting snake. Losing and losing again, is the very basis of the process, til all we are left with is the bare essence of human existence...


  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #2

    ...the face has limited space. My mother used to say, if you fill your face with laughing, there will be no more room for crying.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #3

    …God is a giant quiltmaker. With an infinite variety of designs. And the quilt is grown so big and confusing, the pattern is impossible to see, the squares and diamonds and triangles don’t fit well together anymore, it’s all become meaningless. So He has abandoned it.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #4

    A lifetime had to be crafted, just like anything else, she thought, it had to be moulded and beaten and burnished in order to get the most out of it.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #5

    Birth and death - what could be more monstrous than that? We like to deceive ourselves and call it wondrous and beautiful and majestic, but it's freakish, let's face it.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #6

    Black money is so much a part of our white economy, a tumour in the centre of the brain - try to remove it and you kill the patient.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #7

    But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #8

    Curious, he thought, how, if you knew a person long enough, he could elicit every kind of emotion from you, every possible reaction, envy, admiration, pity, irritation, fury, fondness, jealousy, love, disgust. But in the end all human beings became candidates for compassion, all of us, without exception...and if we could recognize this from the beginning, what a saving in pain and grief and misery.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #9

    democracy is a see-saw between complete chaos and tolerable confusion

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #10

    Depression is a red herring, said Nariman. I think a lot about the past, it's true. But at my age, the past is more present than the here and now. and there is not much percentage in the future.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #11

    Did life treat everyone so wantonly, ripping the good things to pieces while letting bad things fester and grow like fungus

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #12

    Distance was a dangerous thing, she knew. Distance changed people.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #13

    Does it stand, but not straight enough? Is there a bend in the tool? Leaning left like the Marxist-Leninist Party? To the right, like the Jan Sangh fascists? Or wobbling mindlessly in the middle, like the Congress Party? Fear not, for it can be straightened! Does it refuse to harden even with rubbing and massage? Then try my ointment, and it will become hard as the government's heart! All your troubles will vanish with this amazing ointment made from the organs of these wild animals! Capable of turning all men into engine-drivers! Punctual as the trains in the Emergency! Back and forth you will shunt with piston power every night! The railways will want to harness your energy! Apply this ointment once a day, and your wife will be proud of you! Apply it twice a day, and she will have to share you with the whole block!

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #14

    Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #15

    He winced at her efforts to mollify him. Why didn't she say she was disgusted with his behaviour, with his long absence, his infrequent superficial letters? And if she did say it - would he defend himself? Would he give reasons, try to explain how meaningless every endeavour seemed to him? No. For then she would start crying again, he would tell her to stop being silly, she would ask for details, and he would tell her to mind her own business.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #16

    How starved they seemed for ordinary kindness

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #17

    I almost forgot to tell you - you have the right to remain silent, but if you do, my boys at the station will process your bones to help you confess.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #18

    I made up three lists: Candidate's Accomplishments (real and imaginary), Accusations Against Opponent (including rumours, allegations, innuendos, and lies), and Empty Promises (the more improbable, the better). Then it was merely a matter of taking various combinations of items from the three lists, throwing in some bombast, tossing in a few local references, and, there it was - a brand new speech.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #19

    In those days, continued Ishvar, it seemed to me that that was all one could expect in life. A harsh road strewn with sharp stones and, if you were lucky, a little grain.

    And later?

    Later I discovered there were different types of roads. And a different way of walking on each.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #20

    Maneck studied beggermaster's excessive chatter, his attempt to hide his heartache. Why did human do that to their feelings? Whether it was anger or love or sadness, they always tried to put something else forward in its place. And then there were those who pretended their emotions were bigger and grander than anyone else's. A little annoyance they acted like gigantic rage; where a smile or chuckle will do, they laughed hysterically. Either way, it was dishonest.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #21

    Multilate. Ha Ha Ha,' said Nusswan, avuncular and willing to pretend it was a clever joke. 'Its all relative. At the best of times, democracy is a see saw between complete chaos and tolerable confusion. You see, to make a democratic omelette you have to break a few democratic eggs. To fight fascism and other evil forces threatening our country, there is nothing wrong in taking strong measures. Especially when the foreign hand is always interfering to destabilize us. Did you know the CIA is trying to sabotage the Family Planning Programme?

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #22

    Narayan explained how they had spent the morning, and Dukhi laughed to hear it. the entire episode made Radha furious. Why must you torment the boy? There is no need to make my Om do such dirty work....How will he appreciate what he has if he does not learn what his forefathers did? Once a week he will come with me! Whether he likes it or not!

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #23

    Please always remember, the secret of survival is to embrace change, and to adapt. To quote, All things fall and are built again, and those that build them are gay.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #24

    Remembering bred its own peculiar sorrow. It seemed so unfair: that time should render both sadness and happiness into a source of pain.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #25

    That's the secret - to distract the senses. Have I told you my theory about them? I think that our sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing are all calibrated for the enjoyment of a perfect world. But since the world is imperfect, we must put blinders on the senses.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #26

    The joy and laughter and youth they brought was an antidote to the somberness enveloping his flat, the hours when he felt the very walls and ceilings were encrusted with the distress of of unhappy decades

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #27

    The return of solitude was not quite as Dina expected it to be. These many years I made a virtue of inescapable reality, she thought, calling it peace and quiet.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #28

    the secret of survival was to balance hope and despair

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #29

    There must be a lot of duplication in our country’s laws, said Dukhi. Every time there are elections, they talk of passing the same ones passed twenty years ago. Someone should remind them they need to apply the laws.

    For politicians, passing laws is like passing water, said Narayan. It all ends down the drain.

  • Rohinton Mistry Quote #30

    Time had changed the magical to mundane

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