Humans are animals of habit. — Arundhati Roy

Violating human rights is integral to the project of neoliberalism and global hegemony. — Arundhati Roy

The idea of ‘human rights,’ for example–sometimes it bothers me. Not in itself, but because the concept of human rights has replaced the much grander idea of justice. — Arundhati Roy

Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things one could get used to. — Arundhati Roy

The idea of justice–even just dreaming of justice–is revolutionary. The language of human rights tends to accept a status quo that is intrinsically unjust–and then tries to make it more accountable. — Arundhati Roy

And there it was again. Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature. — Arundhati Roy

The writer is the midwife of understanding. — Arundhati Roy

There can be nothing more humiliating for a writer of fiction to have to do than restate a case that has already been made. — Arundhati Roy

Acceptance spells death to a writer. — Arundhati Roy

In India, whichever language you write in, the possibility of people not understanding irony or not understanding [remains there]. This as a writer is most terrifying! — Arundhati Roy

I have truly known what it means for a writer to feel loved. — Arundhati Roy

Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. — Arundhati Roy

Years of imprisoning and beheading writers never succeeded in shutting them out. However, placing them in the heart of a market and rewarding them with a lot of commercial success, has. — Arundhati Roy

I am an artist and a writer, and I do think that one always places oneself in the picture to see where one fits. — Arundhati Roy

If you ask me what is at the core of what I write, it isn’t about ‘rights’, it’s about justice. Justice is a grand, beautiful, revolutionary idea. — Arundhati Roy

Sometimes there’s truth in old cliches. There can be no real peace without justice. And without resistance there will be no justice. — Arundhati Roy

Human rights takes history out of justice. — Arundhati Roy

Of course, there’s an alternative to terrorism: it’s called justice. — Arundhati Roy

Fascism itself can only be turned away if all those who are outraged by it show a commitment to social justice that equals the intensity of their indignation. — Arundhati Roy

Everyone thinks I live alone, but I don’t. My characters all live with me. — Arundhati Roy

The only dream worth having, I told her, is to dream that you will live while you’re alive and die only when you’re dead. — Arundhati Roy

To call someone like me a writer–activist suggests that it’s not the job of a writer to write about the society in which they live. But it used to be our job. — Arundhati Roy

The great irony is that people who live in remote areas, who are illiterate and don’t own TVs, are in some ways more free because they are beyond the reach of indoctrination by the modern mass media. — Arundhati Roy

Let’s leave one alive so that it can be lonely. — Arundhati Roy

What came for them? Not death. Just the end of living. — Arundhati Roy

Fiction is too beautiful to be about just one thing. It should be about everything. — Arundhati Roy

As I keep saying, fiction is truth. I think fiction is the truest thing there ever was. — Arundhati Roy

There’s no division on my bookshelf between fiction and nonfiction. As far as I’m concerned, fiction is about the truth. — Arundhati Roy

I need fiction like you need to eat or exercise. — Arundhati Roy

Novels are such mysterious and amorphous and tender things. — Arundhati Roy

History is really a study of the future, not the past. — Arundhati Roy

I am a Maoist sympathiser. I’m not a Maoist ideologue, because the communist movements in history have been just as destructive as capitalism. — Arundhati Roy

Pointed in the wrong direction, trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps because their footprints had been swept away. — Arundhati Roy

To understand history,’ Chacko said, ‘we have to go inside and listen to what they’re saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells. — Arundhati Roy

Madness slunk in through a chink in History. It only took a moment. — Arundhati Roy

India lives in several centuries at the same time. — Arundhati Roy

Anything’s possible in Human Nature …Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite joy. — Arundhati Roy

She was perhaps too young to realize that what she assumed was her love for [him] was actually a tentative, timorous, acceptance of herself. — Arundhati Roy

That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less. — Arundhati Roy

When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less. — Arundhati Roy

Human beings seem unable to live without war, but they are also unable to live without love. — Arundhati Roy

That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much. — Arundhati Roy

He held her as though she was a gift. Given to him in love. Something still and small. Unbearably precious. — Arundhati Roy

He walked on water. Perhaps. But could he have *swum* on land? In matching knickers and dark glasses? With his Fountain in a Love–in–Tokyo? In pointy shoes and a puff? Would he have had the imagination? — Arundhati Roy

Railing against the past will not heal us. History has happened. It’s over and done with. All we can do is to change its course by encouraging what we love instead of destroying what we don’t. — Arundhati Roy

People always loved best what they identified most with. — Arundhati Roy