I've always prided myself on my discipline as a writer. I do it like a job. I get up in the morning and go to my desk.

Science fiction is where I started out, really. When I was a kid, I was a complete addict of science fiction. It was one of my earliest interests as a writer, and I've just taken a long time to circle back around to it.

What happened in Pakistan was that people were told: You're all Muslim, so now you're a country. As we saw in 1971 with the Bangladesh secession, the answer to that was: 'Oh no, we're not.'

We live in a frightened time, and people self-censor all the time and are afraid of going into some subjects because they are worried about violent reactions.

I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women.

The fact of being alive compensated for what life did to one.

I do think that there is such a thing as human nature, and that the things that we have in common are perhaps greater than the things that divide us.