The Merchant of Stories Quotes

“I believe that when we come into this world, we are not promised glory, fortune, fame, a happy family or really anything at all. All we get is the journey. And in these pages, you will find mine. -Dipa to her Grandfather”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“You will always be the Matriarch—the Queen of Hearts. Your hand rocked my cradle, and you ruled my world.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“I can hear my muse whispering tenderly in my ear. There is a story that wants to be told, and I'm merely its chosen vessel.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“Every entrepreneur begins with a desire and a vision. Along the way, one inevitably encounters the difficulties of manifesting one’s vision in the world. But that’s part of the journey. It isn’t easy, but with one step at a time and one day at a time, you will get there.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“The entrepreneur’s mind-set is completely different to the employee’s mind-set. The entrepreneur finds it abhorrent to conform to organizational norms, whilst the employee finds joy and stability in all that’s tried and true. It’s not that one’s wrong and the other is right. It’s the mind-set that differentiates the two.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“I believe it is not the artist that chooses the muse—but rather, the muse who chooses the artist. The Muses are the original inventors, whilst we humans are their vessels.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“I now understand that life comes with no guarantees. There is risk at the heart of every decision we make. No matter how much we plan things—or not plan anything at all—life’s plans will always take precedence over our own.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“She knew freedom once, a long time ago. She barely remembers it anymore. The man stands there baffled. She stares at the man who's loved her all these years. She's scared of the wild now. She's been tamed by his nurture.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“Nowadays,” my tour guide says, “it is a man’s world here in China. But 6000 years ago, it was a woman’s world. Man and woman don’t need to get married. Man can just visit the woman’s house at night. When you have a baby, it doesn’t matter who the father is.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“I simply don’t have it in me to define my life’s success playing someone else’s game and following someone else’s rulebook.” --Dipa to her Grandfather”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“I've been around the world now, but the alleys of my childhood will always be special. I carry the old stories and memories with me wherever I go.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“The landscape of Singapore is different now. Modern buildings scratch the skyline with a pomp and display that wasn't there in days gone by. Old and new come together to create a modern Singapore that was still in the process of being made as I grew up.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“I will chart my own territory. My own course. I will walk on that path that has never been walked before because I am not afraid of the unknown.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“I was particularly fascinated by the story of the circumstances that led to the development of tertiary education in China. It seems hard to imagine—but there was a time when institutionalized education, formal curricula and exams didn’t exist.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“The soul always chooses the heart’s desire.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“This is not my life. I have a dream. I have a desire. I have something that life wants me to give the world.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“Business is in my blood. I don’t know where the need to write books and tell stories came from, but it’s there. It’s always been there. So I might as well write my own books and sell them.
I am The Merchant of Stories.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey