I'm working on a nonfiction book on Nepal and a novel about diasporas.

I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.

I can't pick out one single book that had such a profound personal impact.

Don't write the book you think publishers want to commission. Plenty of other writers will be doing the same thing.

It took a brave editor in the U.S. to sign a contract for Dancing Girls, and without her belief in the book, I'm not sure it would ever have found its way into print.

When I was a child and teenager I read whenever I had the opportunity, but since then I've found it hard to read as much as I'd like, children, work, and pets all providing powerful incentives to escape into a book and a practical reason why I rarely do so.