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.

I want my books to sell, to be read. I'm not interested in being obscure.

Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person's power. Be just to yourself.

I don't pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.

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.

You have to learn a few things, which you do along the way, but basically, poetry is a matter of the ear. Iambic pentameters or what constitutes a stanza comes naturally - your ears will know.

In a painting, you can't make out whether the artist painted the left eye before the right eye. In Chinese calligraphy, you can see the progression of the artist's stroke.