If Turkey wants to join Europe, it will have to become a European country, and that might take a long time.

You can't have modern states based on ideas which have been out of date for a thousand years.

My first novel - the novel I wrote before 'Midnight's Children' - feels, to me, now, very - I mean, I get embarrassed when I see people reading it. You know, there are some people who, bizarrely, like it. Which I'm, you know, I'm happy for.

A man who invents himself needs someone to believe in him... Not only the need to be believed in, but the need to believe in another. You've got it: Love.

If you actually want to change your world, there is a better way of doing it than blowing yourself up.

I needed my stuff around me, and in that little cocoon I felt good, and I could work.

Even when things are at their worst, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'Good story!'