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.

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.

Poetry, I think, intensifies the reader's experience. If it's a humorous facet of the story, poetry makes it more exuberant. If it's a sad facet, poetry can make it more poignant.

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

Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music-not too much, or the soul could not sustain it-from time to time.

It's not the gods But our own hearts We need to fear. The evil starts Against all odds Not there but here.

Boredom provides a stronger inclination to write than anything.