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Karan Mahajan Quotes

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American policies toward Asians reached a nadir in 1924, with the implementation of a law that sought 'to preserve the idea of American homogeneity' and denied admission to the country to most non-whites. Immigration from Asia was banned completely, with the establishment of an 'Asiatic Barred Zone.'

- Karan Mahajan

Country, Idea, Asians, Nadir

I lived in Brooklyn from 2007 to 2012 but for the last few years have resided in Austin, Texas, where my world - especially the world of downtown - is predominantly white.

- Karan Mahajan

Texas, Last, Downtown, Austin

When a certain swathe of India's population considers the country's ancient past, it doesn't see a country fragmented into kingdoms, savaged by caste divisions, and mired in poverty; rather, what's envisioned is a vast, unified Hindu empire stretching from Kashmir to the Indian tip at Kanyakumari.

- Karan Mahajan

Country, Rather, Mired, Caste

Muslims remain the most convenient target for prejudice in a city like Delhi, which is far more ghettoized than Bombay or Bangalore, for example.

- Karan Mahajan

City, Like, Which, Convenient

In the five months I wrote the final draft of 'The Association of Small Bombs,' I never fell out of the book. The world was real to me: plausible and powerful.

- Karan Mahajan

Small, Months, Wrote, Plausible

Yashpal, writing in the nineteen-fifties, sought to indict this culture of men, Hindus and Muslims alike, who value their freedom and power over the rights and lives of women.

- Karan Mahajan

Over, Lives, Sought, Hindus

I tend to see my characters from inside and outside at once; this is a technique I use to retain a slight distance. It means my characters can act in unexpected ways on two axes: physical and mental. It isn't just, 'I thought this and then I did this,' which is the technique of the modern psychological novel.

- Karan Mahajan

Distance, Use, Psychological, Axes

We discount the physical, when, in fact, much of life is physical. People's personalities are partly formed by, or in response to, how they take up space; the physical mask has some relation, howsoever obscure, to the mental work happening underneath.

- Karan Mahajan

Fact, Mental, Some, Discount

The Hindu nationalists see a religion near perfection save for the tampering of Muslims and Christians. So they fall upon these groups, rather than try to reform their own practices by drawing on India's sophisticated philosophical traditions.

- Karan Mahajan

Own, Sophisticated, Rather, Practices

There's a hustling, but also a self-centred vibe you can get from people in Delhi.

- Karan Mahajan

Vibe, Get, Hustling, Delhi

In Delhi, where I grew up, commerce is brusque. You don't ask each other how your day has been. You might not even smile. I'm not saying this is ideal - it's how it is. You're tied together by a transaction. The customer doesn't tremble before complaining about how cold his food is.

- Karan Mahajan

Other, Been, Before, Delhi

I remember returning to Bangalore after a few months of travel and seeing it as a first-world city, like New York or San Francisco. This may be obvious to some people, but I grew up in Delhi, and I had no experience of how someone from a 'Tier 2' city may view a 'Tier 1' city. You really do emigrate between worlds when you come from those towns.

- Karan Mahajan

I Remember, Some, Francisco, Delhi

When I lived in Delhi, it was burdened with so many futures - fast roads, malls, flyovers - that one felt almost obliged to be hopeful. Now that hope has diminished, you can feel the city going into a frenzy to reinvent itself. I miss living there.

- Karan Mahajan

City, Reinvent, Almost, Delhi

Apparently, the city of Delhi is a 'character' in my novels. I'd argue that it's a ... city... in my novels.

- Karan Mahajan

Character, City, Apparently, Delhi

I think that a lot of terrorists have been middle class and, more surprisingly, many of them have been people who were not directly affected by the things they're angry about.

- Karan Mahajan

Think, Been, I Think, Surprisingly

Cobain the writer is funny and self-aware and snotty with a knack for off-the-cuff profundity. Remarking to a friend that his band will be called 'Nirvana,' he scribbles next to it the words 'Oooh eerie mystical doom.'

- Karan Mahajan

Next, Profundity, Nirvana, Eerie

There is not one New York but thousands - mixed-up conurbations and microclimates with their own internal logics and charms, dreams and juxtapositions, faces and tongues.

- Karan Mahajan

New, Own, Internal, Tongues

I think there is a chance that Indian writers in America will start producing very interesting books in the years to come.

- Karan Mahajan

Think, I Think, Very, Indian

Terrorists have goals beyond their supposed pacts with God. They are authors, too.

- Karan Mahajan

Too, Terrorists, Supposed, Goals

Reading galleys on the subway is the closest the publishing industry comes to having a standardized mating call.

- Karan Mahajan

Subway, Call, Having, Closest

I travelled around small-town India a lot for a job from 2010-2012, and I was impressed by the energy I encountered in these places.

- Karan Mahajan

India, Small-Town, Impressed, Travelled

American life is based on a reassurance that we like one another but won't violate one another's privacies. This makes it a land of small talk.

- Karan Mahajan

Small, Like, Based, Reassurance

Novelists get to say plenty in their massive tomes; rock singers only get four-minute songs with two verses and a chorus' worth of lyrics, and so there's a real pleasure in accessing the intelligence behind the music, even if it doesn't qualify as 'great literature.'

- Karan Mahajan

Behind, Two, Novelists, Chorus

When you've finished reading every last thing by a famous writer, literary convention holds that you move on to his or her letters, the DVD extras peddled by publishers.

- Karan Mahajan

Famous, Move, Convention, Letters

Terrorists are people, too - they are given to error. Naipaul and then DeLillo do a good job in their novels of drawing this out: I'm thinking of DeLillo's contention in 'Mao II' that terrorists have replaced writers as the people who 'alter the inner-life of the culture.' I thought that was marvellous!

- Karan Mahajan

Thought, Terrorists, Error, Novels

After a post-Bill Berry softening with albums like 'Up' and 'Reveal,' R.E.M. seems to be toughening up again; on the strength of the first single, 'Discoverer,' the band's new record looks to continue with the same muscular rock and roll that defined its last album, 'Accelerate.'

- Karan Mahajan

Muscular, Berry, Albums, Defined

I'm good at description and imparting flow to a story, but I don't necessarily understand the value of long scenes.

- Karan Mahajan

Good, Understand, Imparting, Flow

The deadpan brilliance of John McCrea has been underrepresented in music since 2004, when Cake served up 'Pressure Chief.'

- Karan Mahajan

Pressure, Been, Chief, Brilliance

I had a thick accent, and people didn't understand me, and I was ashamed, and I fumbled. I radiated an uncertain energy; sometimes baristas sensed this and wouldn't try to talk to me, and then an insecure voice in my head would cry, 'He's racist!'

- Karan Mahajan

Voice, Sometimes, Had, Uncertain

Every time a blast happens, people ask, 'But why would someone do this?' Weirdly, it hasn't been answered well anywhere - neither in fiction nor non-fiction.

- Karan Mahajan

Been, Weirdly, Answered, Blast

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