And also I think the rise of other, you could say, destinations for international jihadis mean that Pakistan isn't necessarily the place where people from all over the world who want to engage in these activities gravitate to. They're going now to places like Syria or Yemen Libya, elsewhere.

I am a strong believer in the intertwined nature of the personal and the political; I think they move together.

I am not much of a researcher as a novelist; I write mainly from experience.

All human stories are migration stories because everyone is a refugee from their own childhood.

Sufi poetry is, in a sense, self-help poetry about how to live a decent life, how to deal with your mortality.

I'd rather create a miniature painting than a Taj Mahal of a book.

I think walking is very useful, like sleeping and dreaming, as something that's important to my ability to write.