I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.

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 am certainly not allergic to causes - particularly on subjects such as religious intolerance.

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.

Those books of mine that are remunerative - I'm not talking about poetry here - take years to write, and I am never sure they'll be successful. So writing is a risk in more senses than one.

I think if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well.

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