I was unhappy with the jobs I did after law. I got into the diplomatic service. There again I had really little to do.

I acquired long-lived parents. My mother died at 94. Father died at 90, holding a glass of whisky. I think that's the secret of longevity - to have long-lived parents. The rest is discipline.

I use vulgar language in my writing. Or for people I don't like, but I have never had an outburst of anger and I think that's largely [Mahatma] Gandhi's influence. When you lose your temper, you've lost your cause.

I admit I have no forgiveness. If anyone is ever rude to me, however much they may try to make up, I can't bring myself to re-establish the old [connection]. And when they drop me, I have a sense of relief.

But big people’s illnesses are always made to sound big. The simple shutting and opening of the royal arse-hole was made to sound as if the world was coming to an end.

I did subscribe to the freedom movement and I was much closer to the Congress than to the Akali party. It is a communal party.

I've had very little sex. I like my Scotch, but I've never been drunk.

I discovered that a diplomat's life is largely entertaining and meeting people. At the end of the day there's nothing. So I gave up.

I have never, in 50 years, ever missed a deadline [as a journalist].

I am not a serious person. I don't claim any profundity for any of my writing.

I turned to the Partition experiences, which were churning in my mind. Then came my first novel Train to Pakistan.

I am prolific. Any rubbish I write gets published, so books keep churning out.

I don't want to be cremated, I want to be buried. I don't believe in wasting wood and I feel that one should give back to the earth.

I was never a cardholder. But I was leftist in the sense that I voted communist.

Friends meddle with my plan of work. I resent people dropping in for a chat.

[Sex] is of real interest to every human being and so why gloss over it, and it's fun, it's interesting, it has so many dimensions.

Morality is a matter of money. Poor people cannot afford to have morals. So they have religion.

No one has invented a condom for the pen yet. My pen is still sexy.

I am alone, but never lonely. You have always books around you.