Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state.

Why the brevity? Because I'd rather people read my book twice than only half-way through

I felt suddenly very young - or perhaps I felt my age.

I actually feel that personal matters, like religion and spirituality, are things that I really discuss only with intimates. I think it's, in a way, like sexuality, something where it touches upon something very private.

Which is stronger, politics or love? is like asking, Which is stronger, exhaling or inhaling? They are two sides of the same thing.

When people talk about the death of the novel, they are speaking of the need for the birth of something different.

There really still is a deep wound, you know, in the collective psyche of Pakistan. And the violence has left enormous human and emotional and psychic damage. That's not going to go away. But that said, I think I'm cautiously optimistic that we're looking at a better future.