Everything has shape, if you look for it. There is no escape from form.

I used to write a monthly column for the 'New York Times' syndicate. But I stopped because I found it really hard to have one extreme opinion a month. I don't know how these columnists have two or three ideas a week; I was having difficulty having 12 things to say a year.

We have come to think of taking offence as a fundamental right. We value very little more highly than our rage, which gives us, in our opinion, the moral high ground. From there we can shoot down at our enemies and inflict heavy fatalities.

I remember when I was young, many cities in the Muslim world were cosmopolitan cities with a lot of culture.

If my child had prejudice in his head, I'd be ashamed. I would see it as my failure as a parent.

What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.

In a novel, if you're any good, you don't just have good people or bad people. You have complicated people. You have real people.