Quote by Arundhati Roy: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

Change feels distant or impossible when things are at their worst. But this quote insists that a better world is already forming — quietly, beneath the surface. You just have to be still enough to sense it. Hope isn't passive; it's something you have to listen for.

Roy delivered this at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2003, weeks after millions around the world marched against the imminent invasion of Iraq. It was a moment of deep disillusionment with global institutions, and activists were searching for a language of hope that didn't feel naive.

Indian author and activist from Kerala, best known for her debut novel The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997. She subsequently became one of India's most prominent public intellectuals, writing extensively on nuclear weapons, caste, corporate globalization, and state violence. Her essays are collected in multiple volumes including The Algebra of Infinite Justice.