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.

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 spent many years of my life as an economist and demographer. I was finally distracted by writing my novels and poetry. I'm enormously happy that was the case. I feel that with writing I have found my metier.

For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.

I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature.

You can talk good ideas out of existence.

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.