Everyone sort of sees his own life and times as being ephemeral. One thinks that everything good or important that happened, happened in the past. But I think that seeing scenes that you are used to, but with the heightening effects of poetry, perhaps makes you value your life and times more than you might otherwise do.

So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.

Everyone sort of sees his own life and times as being ephemeral. One thinks that everything good or important that happened, happened in the past. But I think that seeing scenes that you are used to, but with the heightening effects of poetry, perhaps makes you value your life and times more than you might otherwise do.

I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.

I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I'm not. I'm just obsessed with my work.

There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy.

I simply seem to drift. But I sort of allow the drift, because it has a kind of check - it forces me to work harder at what I'm interested in.