The enemy for the fanatic is pleasure, which makes it extremely important to continue to indulge in pleasure. Dance madly. That is how you get rid of terrorism.

I had a very difficult relationship with my father, which ended up okay, but there were many difficult years.

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

All my adult life, if I didn't have several hours a day to sit in a room by myself, I would get antsy and irritable.

When you write you in a way write out of what you think of as your best self, the part of you that is lacking in foibles and weaknesses and egotism and vanities and so on. You're just trying to really say something as truthful as you can out of the best that you have in you.

He would dream of discovering a magic optometrist from whom he would purchase a pair of green-tinged spectacles which would correct his regrettable myopia, and after that he would be able to see through the dense, blinding air to the fabulous world beneath.

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