First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"Don't be so eager to be offended. The narcissism of small differences leads to the most boring kind of conformity."
"You want to dance the mask, you must service the composer. You gotta sublimate yourself, your ego, and, yes, your identity. You must, in fact, stand in front of the public and God and obliterate yourself."
"The problem with enrolling yourself as an ultrasonic epistemic dissident is that if Bach's talent can be reduced to his gender, birth country, religion, sexuality, and so on, then so can yours. Now, some day, Max, when you go out into the world, and you guest conduct for a major or minor orchestra, you may notice that the players have more than light bulbs and music on their stands. They will also have been handed rating sheets - the purpose of which is to rate you. Now, what kind of criteria would you hope that they use to do this? Your score reading and stick technique, or something else?"
"There's no glory for a robot, Eliot. Do your own thing!"
"It's my score! You fucking, little nothing!"
"It is always the question that involves the listener, never the answer."
"Eliot Kaplan: The last thing I need is to be buttonholed in here by someone exactly like me."
"Cate Blanchett - Lydia Tár"
"Nina Hoss - Sharon Goodnow"
"Noémie Merlant - Francesca Lentini"
"Sophie Kauer - Olga Metkina"
"Julian Glover - Andris Davis"
"Allan Corduner - Sebastian Brix"
"Mark Strong - Eliot Kaplan"
"Sylvia Flote - Krista Taylo"
"Adam Gopnik - himself"
"Mila Bogojevic - Petra"
"Zethphan Smith-Gneist - Max"
"Lee Sellars - Tony Tarr"
"Sydney Lemmon - Whitney Reese"
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.