I aim to tell the truth about any subject, not a romance or fantasy, not avoid the truth.

The book begins and ends with the visits to give the impression of a tunnel into their ancestors and family history. I believe in going backwards into the past - I felt I was digging a tunnel back to the past.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

...the moon that hung over the garden like some great priceless pearl, flawed and blemished with grey shadowy ridges as only a very great beauty can risk being.

I aim to tell the truth about any subject, not a romance or fantasy, not avoid the truth.

What a sense of possession, of confidence, it gave one to have pockets, to shove one's fists into them, as if in simply owning pockets one owned riches, owned independence.

People think that because I write about India I must be trying to portray India in a way.