I don't think I would do better books if I wrote full time. I write for amateurish reasons.

The more languages you know, the less likely you are to become a terrorist.

We are men without ambition, and all we want is to be left alone, in peace so that we can try and be happy. So few people will understand this simplicity.

So much better to write pen on paper; you can do it anywhere, say, while stuck at the airport.

Anyone who has grown up in Delhi knows it's horrible.

Governance is complex, difficult, and on the whole, thankless - why ever should the Bright Young Things leave the management of their hotels, newspapers, banks, TV channels and corporations to join, like fleas on a behemoth, the government? Wherein lies the difference between the two worlds?

I feel completely at home in the absurdities of India.