NGOs have a complicated space in neoliberal politics. They are supposed to mop up the anger. Even when they are doing good work, they are supposed to maintain the status quo. They are the missionaries of the corporate world. Arundhati Roy More Quotes by Arundhati Roy More Quotes From Arundhati Roy India has millions of internally displaced people. And now, they are putting their bodies on the line and fighting back. They are being killed and imprisoned in their thousands. Theirs is a battle of the imagination, a battle for the redefinition of the meaning of civilisation, of the meaning of happiness, of the meaning of fulfilment. Arundhati Roy fighting imagination people Power is fortified not just by what it destroys, but also by what it creates. Not just by what it takes, but also by what it gives. And powerlessness reaffirmed not just by the helplessness of those who have lost, but also by the gratitude of those who have (or think they have) gained. Arundhati Roy gratitude giving thinking I am a woman who is a granddaughter of a lady who used to be beaten on the head by her husband, of a mother who went through hell because she was divorced and had to bring up these kids. And I can take 10 men out to lunch and pay the bill, and nobody even thinks twice about it. So don’t mess with me. Arundhati Roy husband mother kids Writers imagine that they cull stories from the world. I'm beginning to believe that vanity makes them think so. That it's actually the other way around. Stories cull writers from the world. Stories reveal themselves to us. The public narrative, the private narrative - they colonize us. They commission us. They insist on being told. Fiction and nonfiction are only different techniques of story telling. For reasons that I don't fully understand, fiction dances out of me, and nonfiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to every morning. Arundhati Roy morning believe thinking Violating human rights is integral to the project of neoliberalism and global hegemony. Arundhati Roy neoliberalism hegemony rights Fascism itself can only be turned away if all those who are outraged by it show a commitment to social justice that equals the intensity of their indignation. Arundhati Roy social justice commitment The invasion of Iraq will surely go down in history as one of the most cowardly wars ever fought. It was a war in which a band of rich nations, armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, rounded on a poor nation, falsely accused it of having nuclear weapons, used the United Nations to force it to disarm, then invaded it, occupied it, and are now in the process of selling it. Arundhati Roy nuclear iraq war Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Arundhati Roy causes kind war Flags are bits of colored cloth used first to shrinkwrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. Arundhati Roy patriotism brain people Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us. Arundhati Roy bloody beautiful way If you're happy in a dream, does that count? Arundhati Roy novelists dream happy Things can change in a day. Arundhati Roy Fiction is truth. I think fiction is the truest thing there ever was. My whole effort is to remove that distinction. The writer is the midwife of understanding. It's very important for me to tell politics like a story, to make it real. Arundhati Roy effort real thinking People who promote the free market and growth are far more romantic, and far more ideologically driven and blinded by their vision than somebody who goes in and comments about the beauty of a forest or the stars in the sky. Arundhati Roy stars sky people If protesting against having a nuclear bomb implanted in my brain is anti-Hindu and anti-national, then I secede. I hereby declare myself an independent, mobile republic. I am a citizen of the earth. I own no territory. I have no flag. My policies are simple. I'm willing to sign any nuclear non-proliferation treaty or nuclear test ban treaty that's going. Immigrants are welcome. You can help me design our flag. Arundhati Roy proliferation-treaty independent simple Sometimes there's truth in old cliches. There can be no real peace without justice. And without resistance there will be no justice. Arundhati Roy real justice peace Delhi is a very maligned city, and deservedly so. Yet there's something about it. It's a secret city, it doesn't hang out its wares. It's like a very deep river. Floating right up on top are the institutions of contemporary power: government, politics, media, and then there's the bureaucracy, the diplomatic missions. But it's also the city of intellectual debate, of protest, it's the city where people from all over the country converge to express their anger. And then, underneath all that, there's this crumbling, ancient city, a confluence of so much history. Arundhati Roy secret country people In Delhi the cars are getting bigger and sleeker, the hotels are getting posher, the gates are getting higher, and the guards are no longer the old chowkidars, the watchmen, but they are fellows with guns. And yet the poor are packed into every crevice like lice in the city. People don't see that anymore. It's as if you shine a light very brightly in one place, the darkness deepens around. Arundhati Roy gun light cities When people say "the people" or "the public" as though it's the final repository of all morality, I sometimes flinch. Arundhati Roy morality finals people What came for them? Not death. Just the end of living. Arundhati Roy ends
