Original thought, original artistic expression is by its very nature questioning, irreverent, iconoclastic.

I am certainly not a good Muslim. But I am able now to say that I am Muslim; in fact it is a source of happiness to say that I am now inside, and a part of the community whose values have always been closest to my heart.

Nothing comes from nothing, Thieflet; no story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old--it is the new combinations that make them new.

I think, in a written novel, the way in which you play with the readers' emotion or the way in which you engage the readers' emotions can be very indirect. You could come at it through irony or comedy, etcetera, and you could capture people's sympathies and feelings kind of by stealth if you like.

I've never rejected the world I came from. To be rejected by it is horrible.

I get a lot of letters - a lot of letters saying, who knew that you were funny?

A photograph is a moral decision taken in one eighth of a second.