I've met the Dalai Lama briefly, but I would probably say my grandfather was the wisest person I ever met. He was my mother's father, an Indian, a family doctor, and very unlike me in that he was deeply religious.

The publishing of a book is a worldwide event. The attempt to suppress a book is a worldwide event.

All art began as sacred art, you know? I mean, all painting began as religious painting. All writing began as religious writing.

If a birth is the fall-out from the explosion caused by the union of two unstable elements, then perhaps a half-life is all we can expect.

Sometimes, people trying to commit suicide manage it in a manner that leaves them breathless with astonishment.

For me, what I've always seen in writers and artists is the courage it takes to make an original work of art. I think the real risks in literature are linguistic and intellectual, and I hope we can highlight those, as well as political courage.

A thing that happens to migrants is that they lose many of the traditional things which root identity, which root the self.