Quotes from Malgudi Days

R.K. Narayan ·  264 pages

Rating: (13.3K votes)


“life is about making right things and going on..”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“This is my child. I planted it. I saw it grow. I loved it. Don't cut it down...”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“How can two living entities possessing intelligence and judgement ever be tied together for a lifetime?”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“It is stimulating to live in a society that is not standardized or mechanized, and is free from monotony.”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“you threw a stone into a gutter it would only spurt filth in your face.”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days



“What can we do with a creature who returns to his doom with such a free heart?”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“We are a flawed, weak species, he gently reminds us in these pages, focusing his attention, clearly and without sentiment, on those who will stoop low, those who will stop at nothing. What makes us care for such frequently pathetic characters is that they, like most of the rest of us, are strivers, driven by hopes for a slightly better life.”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“The gods grow jealous of too much contentment anywhere, and they show their displeasure all of a sudden.”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“The compartment built to ‘seat 8 passengers; 4 British Troops, or 6 Indian Troops’ now carried only nine.”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days


“if you threw a stone into a gutter it would only spurt filth in your face.”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from Malgudi Days



About the author

R.K. Narayan
Born place: in Chennai, India
Born date October 10, 1906
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― Jenny Han, quote from Shug


“God is silent. The devil whispers…”
― Donato Carrisi, quote from The Whisperer


“Back in bed I listen to every sound. The plastic tarp over the table on the balcony crunching in the cold wind. the two short clicks in the walls before the heat comes on with a low whoosh. I hear a constant base hum all around, the nervous system of the building, carrying electricity and gas and phone conversations to all our respective little boxes. I listen to it all, the constant, the rhythmic, and the random. It's hard to measure the night by sound, but it can be done. I know that when the traffic noise is quietest, it's about 4:30 in the morning. I know that when the 'Times' hits the door, it's around 5. Now the clock says it's morning, 5:45, but the November sky still says midnight. I hear the elevator ding twenty yards down the hall outside our door. Seven seconds later, I hear his keys in our lock, then his heavy backpack hitting the floor. I hear the refrigerator door open, the unsealing vacuum wheezing as the cold inside air meets the dry heat in the apartment. The cupboard door. A glass. The crescendoing fizz of a new two-liter Diet Coke bottle opening. It's a one-sided conversation with no one actually talking. I lie in the dark, close my eyes, and try not to listen to his movements around apartment. these are the sounds of our life together before it got so messy. I want to say something back. Anything, anything that sounds like things sounded last summer. Even just to myself. Just something out loud.
The inside of my eyelids turn pink. My door has been opened and the light from the hallway shines through them. I won't open them. There is no noise.
Like an eclipse, the world behind my closed eyes goes dark again. For just one second, before I feel a kiss on my right eye. I keep them closed. A kiss on the left one. I open them. Jack looks down at me and closes his eyes. He leans forward and puts his forehead on my chest and goes limp.
''Blues Clues' is on,' he says softly into my tee shirt. His muffled voice vibrating only a half inch away from my heart.”
― Josh Kilmer-Purcell, quote from I Am Not Myself These Days


“change of scene. A new start. And it worked.”
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“I think I’ll leave it off, just for you. You can think about us naked. Hammering. Nailing. Pounding. Screwing.” He gives me a totally naughty and completely adorable smirk.   “I will be thinking no such things.” “Oh, yeah, you will. It will be all you think about for the rest of the day.”
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