San Francisco host
Mafe Perez
@mafeperezt
Shobha talks about how she came to write her novel, Girls Burn Brighter, after coming to terms with a universal truth: nothing endures, except for the amount of heart we put into our creations.
About the speaker

Shobha Rao is the author of the short story collection, An Unrestored Woman, and the novel, Girls Burn Brighter. She is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015. Girls Burn Brighter has been longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and is a finalist for the California Book Award. She lives in San Francisco.
Favorite quotes from this talk See all
“You don't have to write something perfect. You don't have to write something timeless. You have to write something that befriends one reader. — Shobha Rao

“...and every day I carry with me that thing that I came to understand, that now flows in my veins, and that is that nothing endures, nothing does. And maybe nothing should endure. But how much we put into it, how much heart we put into it, that is the measure of our lives. There may be, in fact, no other measure of our lives." — Shobha Rao
“Nothing endures. Nothing does. But how much we put into [our creative work], how much heart — that is the measure of our lives. — Shobha Rao

“"(By this point,) I had enough rejections to wallpaper my entire apartment." — Shobha Rao
“Sound is life. — Shobha Rao

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I just finished watching this talk and it was truly inspiring. I loved her message and found that it was something I needed to hear this morning before starting my day. Thank you.
Thank you Shobha. I loved your whole talk and story, and had no idea it would end up being something so profound for me to hear right now. This relates to our whole lives, and for me at this time it is profoundly, healingly relevant. Thank you. Thank you. xoxo