It's easy when you grow up in fear to act out of fear. I don't want to embrace that fear; I prefer to be kind.

Novels should be judged rigorously. Either a book works or it doesn't. The fact that something is true in the real world should not lend authority to it in fiction.

I can't have composite characters. I can't attribute dialogue to someone based simply on my memory and not based on notes taken at the time that the words were spoken.

Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.

It is hard to write about physically difficult things without causing the reader to disengage.

The monsoon is such a dominant part of Indian life that it is hard to overstate its importance. One's life completely changes based on the rain. After the monsoon, because the dust settles, one can see further and so it feels like one's eyesight has improved or that one is living in a different country where there is more light.

It's easy when you grow up in fear to act out of fear. I don't want to embrace that fear; I prefer to be kind.