I did a lot of student acting when I was young.
All art began as sacred art, you know? I mean, all painting began as religious painting. All writing began as religious writing.
Airport security exists to guard us against terrorist attacks.
I do not need the idea of God to explain the world I live in.
Throughout human history, the apostles of purity, those who have claimed to possess a total explanation, have wrought havoc among mere mixed-up human beings.
Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts.
Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century.
If my child had prejudice in his head, I’d be ashamed. I would see it as my failure as a parent.
One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.
Writers and politicians are natural rivals. Both groups try to make the world in their own images; they fight for the same territory.
British society has never been cleansed of the filth of imperialism.
Acting was always my unscratched itch, when I was in college and even afterwards.
I don’t know what to say about literary critics. I think it’s probably best to say nothing.
I don’t like books that play to the gallery, but I’ve become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.
India is my kid sister.
It is often said by religious people that without its framework, there is no sense of right or wrong. My view is that religion comes after ethics.
It may be that the books that were best liked in your lifetime are not the ones that are best liked 100 years later.
Look at history. It’s not the account of a species at peace.
Many men start being friendly with women because they are trying to seduce them. I’m not trying to seduce them. I just like hanging out with them.
Nobody wants to read a 600 page book in which the author is fabulous throughout.