“Reading Epictetus, I realized that most of the pain in my life came no...” — Elif Batuman Quote

Reading Epictetus, I realized that most of the pain in my life came not from any actual privations or insults but, rather, from the shame of thinking that they could have been avoided.

There's this idea that if you want to write, you shouldn't study literature because then you're dissecting what you love, and you should keep your love of literature pure. I think that's kind of silly.

The novel is like a melancholy form. It's about some kind of disillusionment with the way things are versus the idea of how they could be or how they used to be.

I grew up thinking that it was immoral to idealize the past because, in the past, there was slavery and no penicillin.

I'm very much interested in doing actual theater.

I guess coming out against actual evil takes guts.

I love working with the actors eye-to-eye. I think something gets lost in translation, not only through a monitor, but when you leave the area where the actual scene is taking place.

It is the unseen and the spiritual in people that determines the outward and the actual.

In the India I was growing up in, history wasn't really a wise career option. People would joke and say, 'History's okay, but what's your actual job?' I didn't come from a privileged background and couldn't afford to be irresponsible, so I did the pragmatic thing and did a MBA.