For a combination of reasons, and despite evident fondness for American products and individuals, my impression is that most Pakistanis have extremely negative views of the US as a geopolitical player.

Literature helps us transcend ourselves.

My mother has been to Mecca to perform her hajj; my dad hasn't. I come from a very liberal family, so even the people who are outwardly religious tend to subscribe to gender equality, the importance of open-mindedness, all that stuff. My family is generally nonprescriptive.

Love is transient even on a very personal level. We lose everyone that we love. Sometimes we drift apart and sometimes we die.

We need a self because the complexity of the chemical processes that make up our individual humanities exceeds the processing power of our brains.

I think wars, climate change, all that stuff is going to move people. And so I wanted to say, "What if the migration apocalypse occurs and it isn't an apocalypse at all?" Maybe we will still find ways to be happy and for our children and grandchildren to thrive and the world to move on.

In a way, every parent is sort of dependent on the benevolence of the society around them to take care of their children.