I gather you yellow-skinned men, despite your triumphs in sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, still don't have democracy. Some politician on the radio was saying that that's why we Indian are going to beat you: we may not have sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, but we do have democracy. If I were making a country, I'd get the sewage pipes first, then the democracy, then I'd go about giving pamphlets and statues of Gandhi to other people, but what do I know? I am just a murderer!
Aravind AdigaLet animals live like animals; let humans live like humans. That's my whole philosophy in a sentence.
Aravind AdigaYou ask 'Are you a man or a demon?' Neither, I say. I have woken up, and the rest of you are sleeping, and that is the only difference between us.
Aravind AdigaI am coming back to New York after five years, and it seems that psychics are taking over the city.
Aravind AdigaApparently, sir you Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you donโt have entrepreneurs. And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, โโdoesโโ have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology. And these entrepreneursโ"we" entrepreneursโhave set up all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now.
Aravind AdigaA rich man's body is like a premium cotton pillow, white and soft and blank. ''Ours'' is different. My father's spine was a knotted rope, the kind that women use in villages to pull water from wells; the clavicle curved around his neck in high relief, like a dog's collar; cuts and nicks and scars, like little whip marks in his flesh, ran down his chest and waist, reaching down below his hip bones into his buttocks. The story of a poor man's life is written on his body, in a sharp pen.
Aravind Adiga