Saw the great Arundhati Roy at BAM the other night (pictured here with moderator Imani Perry). Absolutely incredible.
Several things that will stick with me for a long time:
Roy said that you have to “find your own language” as a writer. Or even as a human. She said it can be harmful to adopt someone else’s language to describe/explain your own life.
In talking about action in the face of horrors, she said “to retaliate without political thinking is to reduce yourself.”
When asked about what she fears, she said “becoming a writer who doesn’t say what she’s thinking.”
“To put myself in prison is the greatest fear of all.”
The very first thing she did when she came out on stage was to talk about the genocide in Gaza.
She talked about getting real money for the first time after a film project… and THAT gave her the space/time to write THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS. My take: money makes art possible. Don’t let people sell you starving artist bullshit.
She was incredibly honest and moving and very very funny all at once. She’s just come out with a memoir about her mother called MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME, which sounds absolutely harrowing and hilarious and everything else. Can’t wait to read it.
