I haven't any close friends. Friendship needs time to interact, sit down, gossip. I don't have that time.

I have never, in 50 years, ever missed a deadline [as a journalist].

Morality is a matter of money. Poor people cannot afford to have morals. So they have religion.

I use vulgar language in my writing. Or for people I don't like, but I have never had an outburst of anger and I think that's largely [Mahatma] Gandhi's influence. When you lose your temper, you've lost your cause.

I turned to the Partition experiences, which were churning in my mind. Then came my first novel Train to Pakistan.

If you look at things as they are, there does not seem to be a code either of man or of God on which one can pattern one's conduct. Wrong triumphs over right as much as right over wrong. Sometimes its triumphs are greater. What happens ultimately, you do not know. In such circumstances what can you do but cultivate an utter indifference to all values? Nothing matters. Nothing whatever.

I think the sense of belonging does give you a certain amount of mental satisfaction.