Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My first love is literature.
Nostalgia is not a place to live.
I am not an artist. I am not a painter.
My thinking process starts with my pen.
There are no borders in poetry and language.
Getting your work published is a major struggle.
Power manipulates the innocent and terror is born.
I write in Urdu and everything is written by my hand.
It's always humbling and thrilling to be appreciated.
My country is India but my motherland remains Pakistan.
Short stories and poems are an intense burst of emotions.
A social consciousness should be reflected in your poetry.
The success of Indian music at the Oscars is a great achievement.
Let me say that discovering Tagore was the turning point of my life.
I firmly believe that Tagore should be taught in schools all over India.
The voice of universe can be silenced but the voice of writers cannot be.
A writer will not keep quiet. He will express his opinion through writings.
I've always maintained that RD Burman and Sanjeev Kumar were my two anchors.
Delhi has statues and busts of so many politicians. But what about our artistes?
In film lyrics, I avoid Persianised words because they are not widely understood.
Lyrics is commissioned work, it is my profession. But poetry is my statement to life.
Poetry is not about personal pain or tragedy. It should resonate the society's grief.
I am a greedy poet. I keep munching life all the time. Sweet, sour and bitter moments.
I read books, physical books. I am comfortable with it, I can carry it. It is my habit.
The poetry of India can be truly known only through scanning the poetry of all languages.
Because of my pseudonym Gulzar, which is how I am known, some people think I am a Muslim.
My daughter is married here in Patiala and I have shared a bond with Punjabi as a language.
If you notice in my own films the blending of songs is distinct. They narrate stories and scenes.
I often write about the moon, and more often than not, it is to symbolise a person, or a quality.
All day long I keep wishing, let partition be a past now. It should only remain a part of history.
I can manage in six languages - Marathi and Gujarati, in addition to Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Bangla.
In films, there is no scope to rectify any mistake... but in theatre, you can rectify it the next day.
Gujarat has a rich culture and in my view every Indian should contribute to highlighting our heritage.
As I grew, I began learning and speaking a word or two in Bengali and that increased my friends circle.
If one is aware and alive, then it is one's relationships that make you live. It makes life worth living.
A writer can be identified just through his sigh, as a mouthful of words are flooded out in his single sigh.
I believe words should amaze or amuse. Only then will the listener want to understand the meaning of the song.
Another reason I did not make films is that I liked being unemployed, since that is when I read, study and write.
My mother tongue is Punjabi, but my first language is Urdu, which was the case with the people in undivided Punjab.
When it comes to our 'Jai ho,' the song became a super hit because of the composition of Rahman... He made the tune.
Look, when a song becomes a hit, it happens because of its tune and melody, and not for the lyrics in the first place.
Theatre is a very beautiful and interesting medium because it's a live show, unlike a film - once released, it's gone.
There are many songs that have become popular and people sing along with it without knowing the meaning of its lyrics.
When my family migrated from Punjab during the Partition, we came to Delhi and I was enrolled in United Mission School.
I did not have a black coat to wear to the Oscars. It was a mandatory dress code, that was the reason I gave it a miss.
I wasn't happy with Tagore's own translations in English. Maybe he was, but I wasn't, so I took it upon myself to do it.
Cinema has a large scope as it is a mirror of society and with the mindset changing, people are taking it more seriously.
When you find something that makes you feel that only you can do it and nobody else, then you automatically want to do it.
When I write a poem, I do not have to worry about using a higher Urdu vocabulary because I know the reader knows Urdu well.
I think translations should convey the feelings expressed in the original work. This is what I have believed in and practised.