Here's the problem: we are living in a time when the act of reading is changing. The nature of a reader's attention is changing. The capacity for deep literary engagement is changing.

In my early 30s, I started to realise I was avoiding something on a personal level, but also as a writer. I was in denial about who I was, and was trying to be someone who I was not.

The secret of a happy life is respect. Respect for yourself and respect for others.

The Quran is many different things, and we also have to see the Quran almost as a secondary source commenting on the Old Testament.

Religion has been an important part of my understanding, my inquiry into what it means to be human.

Sooner or later we've all got to confront the reality that we have got to come to understand who we are and what we're doing, and the extent to which we are guided or manipulated by forces that are beyond our control.

I think that literary forms are losing their capacity to connect people to issues, to the experiences that feel most meaningful to them.