Funny Boy Quotes

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Life is full of stupid things and sometimes we just have to do them.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy: A Novel

“I was able to leave the constraints of myself and ascend into another, more brilliant, more beautiful self, a self to whom this day was dedicated, and around whom the world, represented by my cousins putting flowers in my hair, draping the palu, seemed to revolve. It was a self magnified, like the goddesses of the Sinhalese and Tamil cinema, larger than life; and like them, like the Malini Fonsekas and the Geetha Kumarasinghes, I was an icon, a graceful, benevolent, perfect being upon whom the adoring eyes of the world rested.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“Yet those Sundays, when I was seven, marked the beginning of my exile from the world I loved. Like a ship that leaves a port for the vast expanse of sea, those much looked forward to days took me away from the safe harbour of childhood towards the precarious waters of adult life.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“Of the three of us, I alone was allowed to enter Amma’s bedroom and watch her get dressed for special occasions. It was an experience I considered almost religious, for, even though I adored the goddesses of the local cinema, Amma was the final statement in female beauty for me.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“Ammachi. Like the earth-goddess in the folktales, she was not to be disturbed from her tranquillity. To do so would have been the cause of a catastrophic earthquake. In order to minimize interference by either Ammachi or Janaki, we had developed and refined a system of handling conflict and settling disputes ourselves. Two things formed the framework of this system: territoriality and leadership.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“There was something ironic about that. Amma comforting Chithra Aunty. Yet I understood it. Chithra Aunty was free to cry. We couldn't, for if we started we would never stop.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“I find it impossible to imagine that the world will ever be normal again.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“I sat on the verandah steps and wept for the loss of my home, for everything that I held to be precious. I tried to muffle the sound of my weeping, but my voice cried out loudly as if it were the only weapon I had against those who had destroyed my life.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“I am tired of these escape plans. I'm tired of everything. I just want it all to end.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“I glanced at the sari lying on the rock where I had thrown it and I knew that I would never enter the girls' world again.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy

“I did not know it at the time, but we would never see Jegan again.”
― Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy