Shantaram

I read Shantaram, a novel by Gregory David Roberts quite some time back. My good friend M, and myself collected some quotes from the book to share them with some friends.

This is a good book, but is the bestest thing about it is the sheer passion with which it has been written. It better be, it is supposed to be a "fictionalised account of real incidents".

Some of these quotes can be trite and down right stupid, or very profound depending on the ambient temperature, comfort of your seat, well being of your digestive system, whether the Karnataka State Assembly is in session or not, whether you had any "white powder" in your champagne or not, or any other random thing.

Take your pick and eNj0i :-)

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Truth is a bully that we all pretend to like (Karla) - unknown page

I dont know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us, or our endless ability to endure it (Karla) - 336


Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything exept tears. In the end that's all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that's all we have - to hold on tight until the dawn - 346


Some of the worst wrongs, were caused by people who tried to change things (Karla) - 367
(Lin is considering how he had befriended a mouse and used to feed it and kept it as a very dear pet, and because he taught it to be friendly to humans, his cell mate is able to capture it and cruelly crucify it)


It's forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would've annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive. - 370


One of the ironies of courage and why we prize it so highly, is that we find it easier to be brave for somone else than we do for ourselves alone - 381


The tendency towards complexity has carried the universe from almost perfect simplicity to the kind of complexity that we see around us, everywhere we look. The universe is always doing this. It is always moving from the simple to the complex.
(And the ultimate complexity is God according to Khader Khan aka Khader Bhai, the underworld boss. Anything that helps this move towards complexity is good, anything that destroys this move towards complexity is evil.) -480


Happiness is a myth. it was invented to make us buy things (Karla) - 491


The only time he ever stopped hating himself was when the risk he faced became so great that he acted without thinking or feeling anything at all (A dutch mercenary) - 583


Heroin is a sensory deprivation tank for the soul. - 630
Floating on the dead sea of the drug stone, there's no sense of pain, no regret or shame, no feelings of guilt or grief, no depression and no desire. The sleeping universe enters and envelops every atom of existence. Insensible stillness and peace disperse fear and suffering. Thoughts drift like ocean weeds and vanish into distant, grey somnolency, unpercieved and indeterminable. The body succumbs to cryogenic slumber: the listless heart beats faintly, and breathing slowly fades to random whispers. Thick nirvanic numbness clogs the limbs, and downward, deeper, the sleeper slides and glides towards oblivion, the perfect and eternal stone.


(Lin is charging at the Russians in Afghanistan here)
And I looked at the men, the brave and beautiful men beside me, running into the guns and God help me for thinking it, and God forgive me for saying it, but it was glorious, it was glorious, if glory is a magnificient and raptured exaltation. It was what love would be like, if love were a sin. It was what music would be, if music could kill you. And I climbed a prison wall with every running step. - 779


Nothing in any life, no matter how well or poorly lived, is wiser than failure or clearer than sorrow. And in the tiny precious wisdom they give to us, even those dreaded and hated enemies, suffering and failure, have their reason and their right to be. - 872


Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting - 918


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There you go, I had a readymade post :D

Added Later: Here are some more quotes that I posted recently
http://tantrik-porter.blogspot.com/2006/08/some-more-shantaram.html