I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I'm not. I'm just obsessed with my work.

My main motivation is not to get bored. I'm just hoping I get a vaguely maverick reputation.

I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.

The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of what you know, and the other nine-tenths isn't visible and never mind if that part is pure styrofoam!

So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.

The point really is that a writer tends to write a book that he or she tends to write. It's as simple as that. Of course, it's important to make a living and all that, but the main impulse as far as I'm concerned - and I'm sure as other writers are concerned - is to tell a story that I feel impelled by.