As quoted in "Kassem's Corner", Time (July 21, 1961).
“I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you'll have to swallow a world.”
Midnight's Children (1981)
Context: Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I've gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each "I", everyone of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you'll have to swallow a world.
Think on These Things (1998), compiled by Clarke E. Johnston, p. 22
Other quotes
On getting her role as "Paikea" in Whale Rider, as quoted in the actor profiles http://www.whaleriderthemovie.com/html/castcrew_cast.html at the official Whale Rider site http://www.whaleriderthemovie.com/.
Up on the Roof (1962), co-written with Gerry Goffin, performed by The Drifters
Song lyrics, Singles
