I used to say, 'There is a God-shaped hole in me.' For a long time I stressed the absence, the hole. Now I find it is the shape which has become more important.

That's the trouble with you sad-city types: a place has to be miserable and dull as ditchwater before you believe it's real.

I will come back to India - so deal with it.

Look at history. It's not the account of a species at peace.

My horizon's have shrunk and I have only endings to write.

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

I don't think I've ever quite grown out of it, actually. There was a point where I could recite some of those Elvish verses - which I've mercifully forgotten. But I can still, if really pushed, recite the text of the inside of the ruling ring in the language of Mordor.