#v

My parents had an arranged marriage, as did so many other people when I was growing up. My father came and had a life in the United States one way and my mother had a different one, and I was very aware of those things. I continue to wonder about it, and I will continue to write about it. ↗

— Jhumoa Lahiri

#arranged #aware #came #continue #did

On the screen I saw tanks rolling through dusty streets, and fallen buildings, and forests of unfamiliar trees into which East Pakistani refugees had fled, seeking safety over the Indian border. ↗

— Jhumoa Lahiri

#buildings #dusty #east #fallen #fled

Some Indians will come up and say that a story reminded them of something very specific to their experience. Which may or may not be the case for non-Indians. ↗

— Jhumoa Lahiri

#come #experience #indians #may #reminded

At 6:30, which was when the national news began, my father raised the volume and adjusted the antennas. Usually I occupied myself with a book, but that night my father insisted that I pay attention. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#attention #began #book #father #i

For that story, I took as my subject a young woman whom I got to know over the course of a couple of visits. I never saw her having any health problems - but I knew she wanted to be married. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#couple #course #got #having #health

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. ↗

— John Mason Brown

#happiness #only #ourselves #purpose #squandering

He told me he was working as an interpreter in a doctor's office in Brookline, Massachusetts, where I was living at the time, and he was translating for a doctor who had a number of Russian patients. On my way home, after running into him, I just heard this phrase in my head. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#doctor #had #head #heard #him

I always think first about the nature of the story. When I had the idea for 'The Namesake,' I felt that it had to be a novel - it couldn't work as a story. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#always #felt #first #had #i

I approach writing stories as a recorder. I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#device #i #i think #kind #projecting

I don't know why, but the older I get the more interested I get in my parents' marriage. And it's interesting to be married yourself, too, because there is an inevitable comparison. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#comparison #get #i #inevitable #interested