Sometimes you find your voice by trying to write like people, and sometimes you find it by trying to write unlike people.

In the experience of art, time seems not to exist. When I'm writing and think, "I've been working for two hours," I've actually been working for seven.

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.

Free speech is not just free speech for people you admire. It's also for people who you think of as reprehensible.

I have been a film buff all my life and believe that the finest cinema is fully the equal of the best novels.

The world is about the way in which our dreams intersect with our real life. Endlessly, the world of the imagination changes the world.

Of course, there is nothing intrinsic linking any religion with any act of violence. The crusades don't prove that Christianity was violent. The Inquisition doesn't prove that Christianity tortures people. But that Christianity did torture people.