The slums are not a place of despair. Its inhabitants are all working towards a better life.

Mumbai may not be my city. But it is my kind of city.

I want to show that the underdog can win. I believe were all the same: you, a slum girl, my mother.

My first novel was a challenge to myself. No one had an inkling that I was working on it.

I am the luckiest novelist in the world. I was a first-time novelist who wasn't awash in rejection slips, whose manuscript didn't disappear in slush piles. I have had a wonderful time.

The one conclusion I have reached is that whiskey is a great leveler. You might be a hotshot advertising executive or a lowly foundry worker, but if you cannot hold your drink, you are just a drunkard.

A great artist is not one who merely fits into a genre but one who defines the genre.