Shantaram

"The difference between news and gossip-News tells you what people did, gossip tells you how much they enjoyed it."

"I was going through deep and silent water. Nothing and no-one could make me happy. Nothing and no-one could make me sad. I was tough. Which is probably the saddest thing you can say about a man."

"It’s a characteristic of human nature that the best qualities, called up quickly in a crisis, are very often the hardest to find in a prosperous calm."

"There is a difference between the dishonest bribe and the honest bribe. The dishonest bribe is the same in every country, but the honest bribe is Indias alone. - Didier Levy"

"Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end thats all there is. Love & its duty, sorrow & its truth. In the end thats all we have - to hold on tight until the dawn."

"One of the reasons why we crave love, & seek it so desperately, is that love is the only cure for loneliness, & shame, & sorrow. But some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you."

"Nothing grieves more deeply or pathetically than one half of a great love that isn’t meant to be."

"Every day, when you are on the run, is the whole of your life. Every free minute is a short story with a happy ending."

"The past reflects eternally between two mirrors - the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didnt do or say."

"I stood in the harsh electric light of that new tunnel, in Bombays Arthur Road Prison, and I wanted to laugh. Hey guys, I wanted to say, cant you be a little more original? But I couldnt speak. Fear dries a mans mouth, and hate strangles him. Thats why hate has no great literature: real fear and real hate have no words."

"The sane man is simply a better liar than an insane man."

"One of the ironies of courage, and the reason why we prize it so highly, is that we find it easier to be brave for someone else than we do for ourselves alone."