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

So in many ways, the bombing at the end of this year and the terrorist attack of last year in Peshawar have bookended both those years in a very unfortunate way. But at a bigger picture since, the impression in Pakistan is that things are actually improving on the terrorism front quite dramatically.

I took a couple of creative writing classes with Joyce Carol Oates at Princeton University, and in my senior year there, I took a long fiction workshop with Toni Morrison. I fell in love with it.

There's a reason prophets perform miracles; language lacks the power to describe faith.

For many people, there is an almost power to be found in prayer.

Certainly, historically, there has been more attention given in the international media to Indian English-language writers than to Pakistani English-language writers. But that, in my opinion, was justified by the sheer number of excellent writers coming from India and the Indian diaspora.

The notion of love as a potentially destructive and potentially redemptive human force is something that comes across in all my books.