“She lifts her eyes, and there is Death in the corner, but not like a king with his iron crown, as the epics claimed. Why, it is a giant brush loaded with white paint. It descends upon her with gentle suddenness, obliterating the shape of the world.”

Indian-born American author and poet

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-born American author and poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Her work has reached readers across fiction and poetry, and 107 quotes from her appear on this site. She is best known for Arranged Marriage, her short story collection, which won an American Book Award in 1996. Two of her novels and one short story were adapted into films, extending her reach beyond the page into cinema.