“Father is a school manqué ... He always wanted to write books. But he became rich instead, so is not allowed.”

“Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that too.”

“My father became a mythical figure, more force than man. . .he was a force my mother would use as a threat of wrath and punishment." In "Father Close, Father Far" New California Writing”

“One of my book-reading friends used the term "our story unfolds" when describing a paper he was writing. He became somewhat less of a friend right at that moment.”

“How as a young girl, Ismat Chugtai convinced her father to excuse her from learning how to cook, and give her instead the opportunity to go to school and get an education:“Women cook food Ismat. When you go to your in-laws what will you feed them?” he asked gently after the crisis was explained to him.“If my husband is poor, then we will make khichdi and eat it and if he is rich, we will hire a cook,” I answered.My father realised his daughter was a terror and that there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.”

“But having more freedom she only became more profoundly aware of the big want. She wanted so many things. She wanted to read great, beautiful books, and be rich with them; she wanted to see beautiful things, and have the joy of them for ever; she wanted to know big, free people; and there remained always the want she could put no name to?It was so difficult. There were so many things, so much to meet and surpass. And one never knew where one was going.”