1.
Hindustan had become free. Pakistan had become independent soon after its inception but man was still slave in both these countries -- slave of prejudice … slave of religious fanaticism … slave of barbarity and inhumanity.
Saadat Hasan Manto
2.
If you cannot bear these stories then the society is unbearable. Who am I to remove the clothes of this society, which itself is naked. I don't even try to cover it, because it is not my job, that's the job of dressmakers.
Saadat Hasan Manto
3.
If you find my stories dirty, the society you are living in is dirty. With my stories, I only expose the truth
Saadat Hasan Manto
If you deem my tales immoral, the culture in which you reside is debased. Through my stories, I merely unveil reality.
4.
If a man has to make a woman the center of his love, why should he integrate animality into this sacred human emotion?...Is love incompelete without it?...Is love the name of physical excersize ?
Saadat Hasan Manto
If a man has to make a woman the focal point of his affection, why should he introduce carnality into this hallowed human feeling?...Is adoration deficient without it?...Is love simply physical exertion?
5.
I feel like I am always the one tearing everything up and forever sewing it back together.
Saadat Hasan Manto
I seem to perpetually deconstruct and reconstruct what I have created.
6.
But love, whether in Multan or on Siberia's icy tundra, whether in the winter or the summer, whether among the rich or the poor, whether among the beautiful or the ugly, whether among the crude or refined, love is always just love. There's no difference.
Saadat Hasan Manto
7.
Here in Manto's own words that he wanted to mark his grave with: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful Here lies Saadat Hasan Manto and with him lie buried all the secrets and mysteries of the art of short-story writing.... Under tons of earth he lies, still wondering who among the two is greater short-story writer: God or He.
Saadat Hasan Manto
8.
...and it is also possible, that Saadat Hasan dies, but Manto remains alive.
Saadat Hasan Manto
...and it is conceivable that Saadat Hasan passes away, yet Manto lingers on.
9.
Some people kiss as if they were eating watermelon
Saadat Hasan Manto
Some people smooch as if they were devouring a juicy melon.
10.
I wondered why people consider escapism so bad, even the escapism on display right then. At first it might appear unseemly, but in the end its lack of pretension gives it its own sort of beauty.
Saadat Hasan Manto
I pondered why individuals view escape so harshly, even the evasion showcased at that moment. Initially it might appear unseemly, yet eventually its absence of ostentation grants it its own type of magnificence.