Fundamentalism isn't about religion, it's about power.

A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.

Stories in families are colossally important. Every family has stories: some funny, some proud, some embarrassing, some shameful. Knowing them is proof of belonging to the family.

Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.

Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.

India is my kid sister.

Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin.

I've never rejected the world I came from. To be rejected by it is horrible.

In the real world, immeasurable hurt is caused by terrorists based in Pakistan who attack countries like India.

The publishing of a book is a worldwide event. The attempt to suppress a book is a worldwide event.

If Woody Allen were a Muslim, he'd be dead by now.

What can't be cured must be endured.

This may be the curse of human race . Not that we are different from one anther , but we are so alike .

After a long, hopeless war, people will settle for peace, at almost any price.

A man who catches History's eye is thereafter bound to a mistress from whom he will never escape.

Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.

In television, the 60-minute series, 'The Wire' and 'Mad Men' and so on, the writer is the primary creative artist.

Bread and books: food for the body and food for the soul - what could be more worthy of our respect, and even love?

A mature society understands that at the heart of democracy is argument.