My first novel was a challenge to myself. No one had an inkling that I was working on it.

Tokyo may have more money and Kyoto more culture; Nara may have more history and Kobe more style. But Osaka has the biggest heart.

The slums are not a place of despair. Its inhabitants are all working towards a better life.

...a rainy day ceases to have meaning for a person who has lived in the open under a monsoon cloud most of his life.

That dreams have power only over your own mind. But with money you can have power over the minds of others

Sometimes street knowledge can be as important as book knowledge.

Never judge a man's actions until you know his motives

I am not into the unrealistic realm of magic realism where birds talk.

I did not go to any creative writing workshop; I did not major in literature. If I can write, anyone can write. All it needs is imagination.

I am very interested in human-interest stories emerging from modern India. I get my inspiration and daily dose by reading the Hindustan Times.

A great artist is not one who merely fits into a genre but one who defines the genre.

Tragedy is a disaster

I'm not a sad person, upset the whole time, but I seem to be quite emotional.

I'm the middle man. I try to keep people happy. I go out of my way to get a smile. That's the way my mother raised me.

The Pakistani government under Musharraf is a strong and key player in the global war on terrorism, and their contribution has been second to none.

Sentences in which I have tried for a certain light tone -- many of those have to do with events, upheavals, destructions that caused me to weep like a child.

Here bloom red roses, dewy wet, And beds of fragrant mignonette.

It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth.

We can't live other people's lives for them. Even if we love them.

Governments, especially democratic ones, are short-term and nationalistic.

Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.