The problem of telling contemporary history is that your message gets outdated.

In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?

In Europe, the Enlightenment of the 18th century was seen as a battle against the desire of the Church to limit intellectual freedom, a battle against the Inquisition, a battle against religious censorship. And the victory of the Enlightenment in Europe was seen as pushing religion away from the center of power. In America, at the same time, the Enlightenment meant coming to a country where people were not going to persecute you by reason of your religion. So it meant a liberation into religion. In Europe, it was liberation out of religion.

The world is full of things that upset people. But most of us deal with it and move on and don't try and burn the planet down.

I'd wanted to create a storm so that I could become more famous and richer.

I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.

I think it's a very important function of art to challenge accepted reality, especially when that reality is created by powerful interest groups.