I want to show that the underdog can win. I believe we're all the same: you, a slum girl, my mother.

I get invited to many more literary festivals than I used to because I'm associated with 'Slumdog Millionaire,' the brand. Many more doors have opened up for me as a result of the global success of the film, although I believe that I'm the same person that existed before it.

Writing is a very lonely occupation. To write you need to concentrate, to concentrate you need to lock yourself away. No distractions; you want your stream of thought uninterrupted.

My books may highlight corruption, brutality and venality, but they also show that if these things come to light, there is rectification. The voiceless do have a voice; democratic mechanisms and accountability do exist.

I don't look at myself as a writer; I am a storyteller.

I am neither a Bengali nor am I from Delhi's St Stephen's. I am an Allahabad boy.