Top 55 Ravi Subramanian Quotes

Most MBA graduates are hungry for intellectual glamour.

If there is one currency that helped Wikileaks take on the might of the U.S. Government, it was Bitcoins.

If somebody says that they want to write a book but do not know what to write about, they will never write a book.

If evil wins in a Bollywood film, it is bound to flop. A lot of people here want to change society, so they like to read about it being changed. And that means good usually triumphs.

Books marketing has moved from the review culture to a preview culture.

There is some confusion in my mind whether to continue to write on banking or try newer pastures.

Bitcoin is complex: the entire private and public key issue, the transfers, the mining of bitcoins… but if you tell it as fiction, people would understand and remember.

An author needs to be in the market. He or she needs to come out with a new book every year. That keeps you alive in the public mind and gives a push to your older books.

To make time for writing, one has to take time out from somewhere. Obviously, a fair amount of time that you spend with the family gets compromised. But my family has been very understanding and supportive.

I keep saying my books don’t have superheroes. They have ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

It is almost impossible to win back a reader‘s loyalty once it’s gone.

I write largely plot-driven stories.

For me, writing is fun. The day I quit my job and take up writing full time, writing will become just another job. A commercial necessity.

My preferred genre of reading is crime thrillers – books by Harlan Coben, Jo Nesbo, David Baldacci, James Patterson, Ashwin Sanghi and a few others – and I write crime thrillers.

A lot of things that I write about have happened to people around me, if not necessarily to me or in the organizations I’ve worked in. Having said that, it’s fiction and has a lot to do with my imagination and creativity.

After my first book, I figured that since it was successful, I wanted to continue things better.

I must say that books in India are not only underpriced but are also undervalued.

When you write, you put your thoughts in the public space. You get both positive and negative feedback.

For ‘The Bestseller‘… there was hardly any research, but I had to give each person a quirk and develop their stories so that it would relate to who they are.

A misconception that exists in the eyes of the general reading population is that authors make truckloads of money.

It is important to send your work to as many publishers as possible. For every one publisher who may show interest in your work, there will be at least five who will reject you.

In India, we don’t read thrillers; we read authors.

Any author gets inspired by the experiences and events that happen to him or his immediate circle. While that’s where the seed or the idea germinates, by the end of the story, it accounts for hardly anything in the book.

When James Bond presses the watch and the car explodes, the writer doesn’t go into the science of it. One should leave it to the leap of faith. I have tried to explain as much as possible, and what I can’t, I have left it to people’s imagination.

I firmly believe that there is no better thriller writer than Harlan Coben.

A profession which is seen as intellectually glamorous is often the most misunderstood when it comes to the commerce involved.

I had, at a point in time, decided not to write on the corporate world. But if people expect me to set stories in a work environment, then why go away from it?

I write about banking because it is something I’m familiar with. Also, I don’t have to do much research on it.

A thriller needs to hold the interest of the reader from the very beginning. It needs to engage with them, hold them in rapt attention, and prevent them from putting down the book.

I have a day job where I make money and satisfy my self-esteem. Writing is for fun, and I want to keep it that way.

My understanding is that a book becomes a best seller only when it is pirated, sold on footpaths and at traffic lights.

A writer must experiment with genres. Otherwise, it is a restriction on the craft.

I’m probably one of the few authors in this country who could very comfortably live off my writing.

In Indian companies, people aren’t too worried about the pace of growth as long as you’re setting up a business which will survive for years.

The opportunity to create wealth in foreign banks exists only in the investment banking space. Working in a local company teaches you to think long term.

While a lot of management development books try to teach you a lesson or give you a scenario of what corporate culture and work practices are about, they’re theoretical and written in a sermonizing way. Most people don’t get past the first chapter, and they just look nice on the bookshelf.

As long as youngsters learn the right things, it really doesn’t matter where they learn it from.

If you are careful about the content and writing style, readers will not feel that you are in a hurry.

Writing with a film in mind – writing like a screenplay – is a sureshot recipe for disaster.

Thousands of books are published every year in India, and it’s becoming more difficult to stand out and get people to buy the books. The only way to get people notice the book is to create a buzz much before it’s released.

I can write in my living room with my wife and kid around.

I’ve always wanted to write, but coming from a small-town background – I was born and brought up in Ludhiana – you think you’re not the kind of literary person who will write books that will sell. There was always a kind of defensiveness in me.

I always felt that one needs to be remembered long after one has gone.

Saying ‘I am not interested in politics‘ is no guarantee that people will leave you alone. The politically-inclined will single you out as a soft target and go after you.

There were many times in my initial days as a writer when I had felt the need to talk to someone, to leverage on someone’s experience, to learn from someone who had written and published a book.

A self-confessed fan of Harlan Coben, I find it difficult to not read a new Harlan Coben novel the week it comes out.

When ‘If God Was a Banker‘ became a success, it changed my entire perspective. I wanted to write more and wanted to be lot more successful as a writer.

I get to office early at about 8 A.M., and I’m back home by 6 to write.

I look at every book as a new learning opportunity.

Books should be both enlightening and entertaining.

Given my extensive background in foreign banks, writing about them came quite naturally to me. Thankfully, God has been kind to me.

I believe if you’ve written a book, you have to stand up and say, ‘Guys, buy the book.’

I believe Bitcoin is a very convenient way to shop and to transfer money to any account around the world. Governments should work around a framework for the currency instead of putting restrictions on it.

I find writing to be a great stress-buster.

One shouldn’t say yes in desperation to the first publisher who approaches. New authors especially should wait and weigh their deal and agree only when they are sure that they have landed themselves a good offer.