I had recently had the impression they were changing - not so much by becoming less pro-Pakistan as by becoming less anti-India. I was wrong. My visit to [Richard] Nixon did anything but avert the war.

I don't waste time in flowery small talk, as people do in India.

At first people asked us, 'Can you do it?' And we kept silent because we didn't believe in ourselves, we didn't believe that we could do things. Today people no longer say to us, 'Can you?' They say, 'When can you?' Because the Indians finally believe in themselves, they believe they can do things.

In all communities you find groups that behave badly. But you must understand them too.

I want to succeed. And I want to succeed in the best way possible, without caring whether people call my actions leftist or rightist.

Mankind will endure when the world appreciates the logic of diversity.

I certainly won't have an empty life!