Top 137 Quotes & Sayings by Ruskin Bond - Page 2

The Nehru years were rather very peaceful years. A lot happened in those years: dams were built, five-year plans were made, Chandigarh was built in front of my eyes. Those were the years I grew up in.

Change has to come. It's not always what you'd like. It's what other people like.

I wrote 'Time Stops at Shamli' in 1956, shortly after 'The Room on the Roof' was published, and I couldn't find anyone to publish it.

I liked the old comic books, especially the funny ones like 'Popeye' and 'Beetle Bailey.'

I think every writer wants future generations to read what he has written.

My mother wanted me to join the Indian army, as the army was seen as a decent and respectable career to have. I shocked my mother by telling her that I wanted to be a writer.

I keep a big, fat dictionary with me while writing.

I'm rather fond of my awards.

I enjoy the process of writing.

I do all my thinking lying down.

Occasionally, I have written about stories related to crime, but I have never attempted a traditional detective story. So I want to write a true detective story.

If you enjoy your journey as a writer, you will never find it difficult to write.

Children haven't changed - the world around them has. Their basic natures haven't changed. They like ice creams. They like to have fun, play games if they get space.

I am a very personal writer. I write direct to the reader. I don't hold back.

I have an excellent memory - for books and authors, that is. I remember all the books I've read.

When I ventured into writing at the age of 17, I wanted to be a good and successful writer. I just wanted to write good stuff - poems, prose, stories, essays, everything.

It's amazing to dwell in the world of fantasy and fear.

In the '50s, '60s, '70s, before television became easily accessible, even the most well-known writers were not recognised. The writers remained mostly an anonymous lot then.

When I was younger, I took life much more seriously.

The transition from an English father to a Punjabi stepfather demanded an adjustment that was far from easy for a 10-year-old boy who had just lost his father.

Sometimes good stories are created while documenting dreams.

I am a sleepy fellow. I will take a nice long nap the first chance I get.

It is okay to experiment with language. Writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf experimented with writing, but basically, one must have a familiarity with the language. And to have that, one must respect it.

I like talking to visitors, especially children.

I write mostly for pleasure, and the reading should ideally be for pleasure, too.

I wouldn't want a film to be made on my life, because I suppose I would only want them to show all the good things about me and hide the awful things, and that wouldn't be a very honest biopic, no?

I am not really a city person.

Unhappy and unsettled childhood helps in writing.

I've noticed people in India have developed a habit of hugging around people. I don't understand it now. I wanted to be hugged when I was young. Now, if someone wants to hug me, I feel only claustrophobic.

I have been apolitical all my life.

As you grow older, life seems funnier.

I suppose in the long run, it's the good work that outlasts the shoddy work, but there's enough room for all kinds of writing.

If four or five days go by, and I haven't written anything, I feel incomplete.

In my twenties, I wrote a lot of romantic stories in which I always lost the girl.

I can't live in a room without a window.

Instead of becoming a great shikari, as my mother and stepfather might have wished, I had become an incurable bookworm and was to remain one for the rest of my life.

In India, not enough importance is given to writing for children. And what could be more important than the enrichment of young minds with great literature?

Writing is the only thing I am good for.

Respect the language in which you write. Be kind, develop good vocabulary, and be creative in writing beautiful sentences. Your prose should be your poetry when you write.

People often ask me why my style is so simple. It is, in fact, deceptively simple, for no two sentences are alike. It is clarity that I am striving to attain, not simplicity. Of course, some people want literature to be difficult and there are writers who like to make their readers toil and sweat. They hope to be taken more seriously that way. I have always tried to achieve a prose that is easy and conversational. And those who think this is simple should try it for themselves.

How evanescent those loves and friendships seem at this distance in time…We move on, make new attachments. We grow old. But sometimes, we hanker for old friendships, the old loves. Sometimes I wish I was young again. Or that I could travel back in time and pick up the threads. Absent so long, I may have stopped loving you, friends; but I will never stop loving the Day I loved you.

The India I Love, does not make the headlines, but I find it wherever I go - in field or forest, town or village, mountain or desert - and in the hearts and minds of people who have given me love and affection for the better part of my lifetime.

There is money to be made in the market place, but under the cherry tree there is rest.

Yesterday, I was sad, tomorrow i may be sad again, but today i know that i am happy. I want to live on and on, delighting like a pagan in all that is physical; and i know that this one lifetime, however long, cannot satisfy my heart.

There are two kinds of authors - subjective and objective. Introverts are more inward looking.

It is always the same with mountains. Once you have lived with them for any length of time, you belong to them. There is no escape.

I have come to believe that the best kind of walk, or journey, is the one in which you have no particular destination when you set out.

I am a storyteller from a personal viewpoint. When I run out of people I invent ghosts. I don't believe in ghosts. Never saw one.

The past is always with us, for it feeds the present.

To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man better than the beast

But the trees seemed to know me. They whispered among themselves and beckoned me nearer.

Book readers are special people, and they will always turn to books as the ultimate pleasure. Those who do not read are the unfortunate ones. There's nothing wrong with them; but they are missing out on one of life's compensations and rewards. A great book is a friend that never lets you down. You can return to it again and again and the joy first derived from it will still be there.

I write a story in my head. I see the story like a movie.

Hapiness is as exclusive as a butterfly, and you must never pursue it. If you stay very still, it may come and settle on your hand. But only briefly. Savour those moments, for they will not come in your way very often.

Red roses for young lovers. French beans for longstanding relationships

Happiness is a mysterious thing, to be found somewhere between too little and too much.

The more you write, the better you will write! So - keep at it!

Normally writers do not talk much,because they are saving their conversations for the readers of their book- those invisible listeners with whom we wish to strike a sympathetic chord.

and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.

It's courage, not luck, that takes us through to the end of the road.