You want to suggest something new, but at the same time, resolve the drama of the action in the novel.

A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.

I believe in such cartography – to be marked by nature, not just label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. ... All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.

For the first forty days a child is given dreams of previous lives. Journeys, winding paths, a hundred small lessons and then the past is erased.

When I read biographies, I skip the first thirty pages about the childhood because it doesn't seem interesting to me.

Githa Hariharan's fiction is wonderful-full of subtleties and humor and tenderness.

As a writer, one is busy with archaeology.