10 profound quotes that prove Amitav Ghosh’s brilliance as a master storyteller

Write India author and India’s wordsmith, Amitav Ghosh is a man known for weaving extraordinary themes such as nationality, diaspora, memory, and communal violence into his work. His prominent works include 'The Shadow Lines' (1988), 'The Calcutta Chromosome' (1995), and 'Sea of Poppies' (2008). The fact that these texts are rich and intense is a result of meticulous research based on artefacts, letters, and memoirs. Ghosh is a recipient of Prix Médicis, French Literary Award for ‘The Circle of Reason’ and Sahitya Akademi Award for ‘The Shadow Lines’. In 2008, ‘Sea of Poppies’ was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

He has also authored several non-fictional accounts, including 'Dancing in Cambodia and At Large in Burma' (1998); 'The Imam and the Indian' (2002), which revolves around his experience in Egypt and 'Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times' (2005).

For his prominent contribution to Indian Literature, Indian Government honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2007. Interestingly, he is the first Indian author to be awarded the 54th Jnanpith award in December 2018.

Listed below are 10 quotes that prove Ghosh’s brilliance as a master storyteller. Read on!
(Photo: BCCL)

"Climate change is like death, no one wants to talk about it."- Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable.

“We are happy we soar very high and when we are not we fall into the depths of an abyss.”
― Amitav Ghosh, 'River of Smoke'

“We must be the willow, not the oak, in the lowering storm.” -Amitav Ghosh, 'River of Smoke'

“Need is not transitive, one may need without oneself being needed.” - Amitav Ghosh, 'The Shadow Lines'

"To use the past to justify the present is bad enough but it's just as bad to use the present to justify the past." - Amitav Ghosh, 'The Glass Palace'

“I suppose everyone finds the despotisms of other people hard to comprehend.”
― Amitav Ghosh, 'Flood of Fire'

“When merchants and traders begin to run wars – hundreds of lives depend on bribes.” - Amitav Ghosh, 'Flood of Fire'

“The absence of food doesn't make a man forsake hunger-it only makes him hungrier .”- Amitav Ghosh, 'River of Smoke'

"Nobody knows, nobody can ever know, not even in memory, because there are moments in time that are not knowable."- Amitav Ghosh, 'The Shadow Lines'

"Hold a bottle by the neck and a woman by the waist. Never the other way round."- Amitav Ghosh, 'Sea of Poppies'