I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books.

It is exciting to write about the present once one gets beyond the trivia of the moment. As a time to live in, as a time to think about, the present is intriguing.

I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside.

I rarely listen to music while writing. If I don't like it, it bothers me, and if I like it, it absorbs me so much I can't write.

Of course, the greater one's need, the greater one's propensity to be mesmerized.

I don't think people give Indian society enough credit. We may not like to talk much about things but we do, basically, want to live and let live.

And the process of reading is such a private one. I once came into a room where a friend of mine was reading one of my books, and he clicked his tongue impatiently and shooed me off.