QUOTES by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
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I interviewed a lot of people in India, and I asked my mother to send me a lot of Bengali books on the tradition of dream interpretation. It's a real way for me to remember how people think about things in my culture.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
In many immigrant families, the parents are just talking and talking about the home country until the children are like, 'Oh, don't tell us any more.'
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
In Western dream interpretation, it's often connected to psychotherapy and looking at the personality and what's going on in your life. In Eastern dream telling, many times there's this idea of a special gift. And without this gift, you could study and study, but you'd never really become an effective dream teller.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I've been interested in dreams myself for a long time, and it's a big part of the Indian tradition, especially where I was brought up in Calcutta in my family, which is quite traditional.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
As I've written more, and as other Indian American voices have grown around me, I strive harder to find experiences that are unique yet a meaningful and resonant part of the American story.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
It's never really easy to be successful as a writer when you're trying to write literary fiction. You've already limited your readership limited by that choice.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
As I remember my grandfather and those Christmas mornings he gave for a little girl's pleasure, I know that often a big life starts with doing small things.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
My favorite part was when my grandfather and I would make a special trip to Firpo's Bakery for red and green Christmas cookies and fruitcake studded with the sweetest cherries I've ever tasted. Usually Firpo's was too expensive for our slim budget, but Christmas mornings they gave a discount to any children who came in.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
We even had a different word for Christmas in my language, Bengali: Baradin, which literally meant 'big day.'
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I show women growing, changing, becoming stronger in many kinds of situations.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
In community work, you reach some people, but in writing, I can reach many more people, not only in exploring issues of domestic violence, but also by showing the importance of strong women in communities.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
If you look back at the great classics and the epics and myths, they were for everyone. Different people got different things from them, but everyone was invited to participate.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Unlike novels with a hero or two heroines, in 'One Amazing Thing,' all the characters tell stories they've never told anyone before, so all the voices become equally important.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
There is no conflict in looking good. You buy things you need, and then you do something good for society.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
A book can be wonderful and powerful and accessible and artful all at the same time.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
'The Moonstone' was all I could have hoped for. A mysterious, cursed jewel, wrested from India, only to be stolen later from a great British mansion. Enigmatic, dangerous priests who follow it across the ocean in hopes of wresting it back.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
It is an Englishman who turns out to be the real villain of 'The Moonstone.' By contrast, the three Indian priests who dedicate their lives to returning the jewel to its proper home in the temple, though they have nothing personal to gain by doing so, are positively heroic.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I was about 12 when I first encountered 'The Moonstone' - or a Classics Illustrated version of it - digging through an old trunk in my grandfather's house on a rainy Bengali afternoon.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
'The Mahabharata,' which inspired my novel 'Palace of Illusions,' also has many stories embedded within the main tale.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I've long been interested in the tale-within-a-tale phenomenon. I'm familiar with many tales which use this framework or the device of many people in one place, telling their stories, or multiple storytellers commenting on each others' stories with their own.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
When I was volunteering with Hurricane Katrina refugees in Houston in 2005, I first started thinking about the whole phenomenon of grace under pressure.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Dissolving differences has always been an important motive for my writing, right from 'The Mistress of Spices.'
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
America is a country formed by diverse communities from different countries. Overall, the country is very hospitable and gives opportunities to grow. Saying that, I'd also say I'm not a 'white' immigrant; a South Asian's experience is different than, say, a European immigrant's.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I realise that a novel and a film are different mediums. As artistes, we need to respect other artistes. It also needs a lot of courage to take risks to experiment and interpret known literary works.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
As a writer, I have to show complexities. Through my writings, I hope to bring out people in different situations and not just one-dimensional beings.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I started putting down my thoughts on paper out of loneliness while I was studying in America. I was very close to my grandfather, and when he died, I couldn't visit home. I started scribbling those thoughts.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Sometimes what is 'real' because it takes place in the physical world, like 9/11, is so unreal on the level of the soul. Then other things, which in terms of the physical world seem so magical and unbelievable, on the level of the soul seem very real.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
One of the things that I am learning is that each generation will have its own negotiations with identity. And one generation can not necessarily help the other generation with it.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
India has been a very accepting culture. We pride ourselves on that. That is a global truth. In fact, it forms a major theme in my books.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Immigration was a huge force in changing my outlook. I moved to America 30 years ago. I had to reassess my beliefs, especially about women's roles.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The ancient world is always accessible, no matter what culture you come from. I remember when I was growing up in India and I read the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey.'
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I have a variety of readers from across the diasporic community, not just from South Asia. I like to write large stories that include all of us - about common and cohesive experiences which bring together many immigrants, their culture shocks, transformations, concepts of home and self in a new land.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
After 9/11, there was so much distress in America that it led to an inter-cultural breakdown. Some of our communities were targeted. Many of our adults shut themselves off from other cultures. I tried to bring children of Indian and other cultures together in my literature.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Mahabharata might have been a great and heroic battle, but there are no winners. The losers, of course, lose.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
A kshatriya woman's highest purpose in life is to support the warriors in her life: her father, brother, husband and sons.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I have no particular reader in mind, but a passionate desire to tell an honest, moving story.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I have been watching how Indian women are forced to do certain things, as the stories of sacrifice and devotion in mythology demand from them. And then there are inspiring stories about women like the Rani of Jhansi that offer women refreshing role models.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I came to the plain fields of Ohio with pictures painted by Hollywood movies and the works of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. None of them had much to say, if at all, about Dayton, Ohio.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I had friends who died in the 9/11 tragedy; some of my friends lost family members in the aftermath of Godhra.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I work very hard at creating complex characters, a mix of positives and negatives. They are all flawed. I believe flaws are almost universal, and they help us understand, sympathise and, paradoxically, feel closer to such characters.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I grew up in Kolkata in a traditional family. We had friends who lived in mansions just like the one in 'Oleander Girl.' Growing up, I was fascinated by the old house and the old Bengal lifestyle.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I write in my study, where I also have my prayer altar. I believe that keeps me focused and gives me positive energy and reminds me that I'm merely the instrument of greater creative forces.
Quote by -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni