Barbs A Dozen
Everyone knows the risk of inviting filmstars to launch books, but Kiran Nagarkar went ahead anyway. He let Aamir Khan steal the show at the launch of his God's Little Soldier, and even stood aside as fans rushed towards Aamir with copies of his book for the star's autograph. But who says writers can't perform as well as actors? To wit, these oneliners at the Kitabfest: "I have nothing against Zadie Smith. I'm sure she'll go on to write better books"—Yasmin Ali Brown. "A skier can be a writer, a writer can't be a skier—it's one more thing the skier can do but what about the writer whose vocation it is to write?"—Amit Chaudhuri. "I wouldn't worry about the success of bad novels: they'll disappear"—Nadeem Aslam. "If only Rohinton Mistry wasn't living abroad, he wouldn't have written such a bad novel."—Manju Kapur.
