The fear is not real, Dil Bahadur; it is only in your mind, like all other things. Our thoughts form what we believe to be reality.

My worst flaw is that I tell secrets, my own and everybody else's.

He was not oppressed by a crowd because in the midst of all the hullabaloo he always found a quiet place for his soul.

Most people feel younger than their age, but the culture values youth, success, beauty, productivity. There is no space in this culture for older people.

In 2011, I announced that I was going to retire, and my agent panicked. So she says: No, no, no. You have to write a book with your husband.

You spend the first part of your life collecting things ... and the second half getting rid of them.

Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks.