Her collarbones like wings that spread from the base of her throat to the ends of her shoulders. A bird held down by skin.

— Arundhati Roy

His gratitude widened his smile and bent his back.

— Arundhati Roy

History is really a study of the future, not the past.

— Arundhati Roy

History would be a revelation of the future as much as it was a study of the past.

— Arundhati Roy

How can you measure progress if you don't know what it costs, and who has paid for it? How can the "market" put a price on things - food, clothes, electricity, running water - when it doesn't take into account the REAL cost of production?

— Arundhati Roy

How history negotiates its terms and collects its dues from those who break its laws.

— Arundhati Roy

If you're happy in a dream, does that count?

— Arundhati Roy

If you think of the world as a global village, a fight between India and Pakistan is like a fight between the poorest people in the poorest quarters - the Advises and the Davits. And in the meantime, the seminars are laying the oil pipelines and selling both parties weapons.

— Arundhati Roy

I have nothing against romance. I believe that we must hold on to the right to dream and to be romantic. But an Indian village is not something that I would romanticize that easily.

— Arundhati Roy

I'm not talking about being against development. I'm talking about the politics of development. Furthermore, I'm talking about more development, not less. More democracy, not less. More modernization, not less. How do you break down this completely centralized, undemocratic process of decision-making? How do you make sure that it's decentralized and that people have power over their lives and their natural resources? I don't even believe in the modern business-like notion of "efficiency". It dovetails with totalitarianism, fascism. People say, "If it's decentralized it will be inefficient." I think that's fine. Let it be inefficient.

— Arundhati Roy