Omniscient, omnipotent, omnivorous and omnipresent all begin with Om.
— Ashwin Sanghi
The Egyptians saw the sun and called him Ra, the Sun God. He rode across the sky in his chariot until it was time to sleep. Copernicus and Galileo proved otherwise, and poor Ra lost his divinity.
In Kolkata is a temple where the deity worshipped is Amitabh Bachchan. The daily aarti is performed to the chanting of the Amitabh Chaleesa. And people still ask, 'Could our mythological heroes be based on actual people who once lived?'
Mythology is like a game of Chinese Whispers. What goes in at one end of the human circle is rarely what emerges at the other end.
The relationship between critic and writer is similar to the one between the pigeon and the statue.
J. K. Rowling's first 'Harry Potter' manuscript was rejected 12 times. Stephen King's 'Carrie' was rejected 30 times. 'Gone With The Wind' was rejected 38 times. I was immensely proud to have beaten them all.
Writing is possibly an art, but crime writing is definitely a craft.
Thrills are much more about anticipation than action. An unfired bullet is more dangerous than one that has already met its target.
The cleanest book on a dusty bookshelf is usually a dirty one.
While I can't walk on water, I can certainly wobble on whisky.
Humankind would improve if we concentrated less on being human and more on being kind.
I love fiction that sounds like fact. As a matter of fact, I also like fact that sounds like fiction.
I feel luck plays a vey crucial role in determining the success of the book. Marketing a book is also very important. You need to try all tricks in the trade.
We don't need to dumb down our stuff. And it's important to know how far we can push readers.
I believe that the day one stops being spiritual, one ends up being religious. I live by the adage that the only certainty in life is death. We should, therefore, learn to live for the day and be content.
Mythology works... because Indians have been bred on myths.
I must admit that i am fascinated by the glories of ancient India. But when will the purveyors of Indian culture realise that not everything about our past was glorious?
Take the first A out of Abraham and put it at the end. You get Brahama. There's the ancient connection right there.
In India, we never distinguished between history and myth. Our Puranas as well as Itihasas contain fantastical tales. They are lies that convey deeper truths.
I don't want to be remembered as a writer. I would rather be remembered as a storyteller.
Mythology does not interest me. Nor does history. But the possible overlap between history and mythology excites me immensely.
Combine two words, Myth and History. What do you get? Mystery.
I was always taught that book keeping was more relevant than book reading. The only thing worth reading was meant to be a balance sheet.
The average human attention span was 12 seconds in 2000 and 8 seconds in 2013. A drop of 33%. The scary part is that the attention span of a goldfish was 9 seconds, almost 13% more than us humans. That's why it's getting tougher by the day to get people to turn the page. Maybe we writers ought to try writing for goldfish!
The first paragraph of my book must get me my reader. The last paragraph of a chapter must compel my reader to turn the page. The last paragraph of my book must ensure that my reader looks out for my next book.
Everyone talks about moderation. How about some moderation in moderation?
The first thriller ever? It was probably one from 1697. It was called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'
Did God create man, or did man create God? Either way, the decision needs to be reviewed.
The reality of the writer's world is that you set yourself up for disappointment with every success that you deliver because with every success you raise your readers' expectations.
After preliminary research, I zero in on an idea, and then I spend at least four months exploring the topic and in plot-building. I jot down every single detail of the plot as bullet points per chapter, and only when the skeleton is complete do I start writing.
I remember how a man once got in touch with me to tell me that he was so engrossed in my book that he had to take a day off from work just so that he could finish reading it. Such kind of responses from my readers is extremely endearing, and it keeps me going.
Of all the writers I have read, Vladimir Nabokov has made the biggest impression on me because he, despite living through the 1917 February Revolution, forced exile amidst the anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, the two World Wars and quite a lot of controversy, was an author who never gave up.
If I use the word 'khichdi' in my novel, I don't have to get into the trouble of explaining that it is a dish of rice and lentils. My Indian readers know it.
It is no secret that I have read 'The Da Vinci Code' several times. I genuinely believe that 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels And Demons' are, by far, Brown's best works.
It's foolish to call Chanakya an Indian Machiavelli. Rather, Machiavelli was possibly an Italian Chanakya.
I was told that Ganesha sat between Lakshmi and Saraswati. My quest to attain the blessings of both goddesses explains my physique.
Physicists explain creation by telling us that the universe began with the Big Bang, an intense energy singularity that continued expanding. But who created the singularity?
Write when drunk. Edit when sober. Marketing is the hangover.
There is one person who can help solve 'writer's block'. His name is Mr. Johnnie Walker.
Mythology is a set of primitive lies that people rarely believe. This is rather different from history, which is a set of lies that people actually believe.
My greatest qualification for writing fiction was my ability to lie with a straight face as a child.
Writing a mystery is like drawing a picture and then cutting it into little pieces that you offer to your readers one piece at a time, thus allowing them the chance to put the jigsaw puzzle together by the end of the book.
My life is ruled by four W's: my writing, my work, my wife, and my whisky. Not necessarily in that order.
My wife is troubled by the things I forget. I am troubled by the things she recollects.
Would the fish have ever been caught if it had kept its mouth shut?
What is divine? Simply that which man has not yet been able to understand. Once understood, it ceases to be divine.
I was learning book-keeping at the age of 12, but it never stopped me from pursuing literature. Over the years, I grew to love the written word.
Admiration from my readers inspire me, and the only 'formula' I believe in towards making a good writer is: 'to thine own self be true!'
Mythopoeia has taken off in the Indian diaspora because there has been a change in readership from a mature audience to a younger one. This lot has a desperate yearning to reconnect. They want to consume mythology but in a well-packaged and easily digestible way.
I don't care if my books don't sell abroad; we have a large enough market in our country. I write for Indian readers.
