And at the end of the day, there was an attempt to suppress a book. The book wasn't suppressed. It's freely available in whatever it is, close to 50 languages. There was an attempt to suppress the writer. And I'm happy to say the writer wasn't suppressed.

English, no longer an English language, now grows from many roots.

Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.

I think if we wish to live in any kind of a moral universe, we must hold the perpetrators of violence responsible for the violence they perpetrate. It's very simple. The criminal is responsible for the crime.

I've never yet managed to write a novel which didn't have an Indian central character.

Friendships are the family we make - not the one we inherit. I've always been someone to whom friendship, elective affinities, is as important as family.

Dissensions between Muslim nations run at least as deep, if not deeper, than those nations' resentment of the West.