The way I relax is I think, 'I haven't got anything coming up.' I like to know there are months ahead when I've got nothing.

I felt my mother about the place. I don't think she haunts me, but I wouldn't put it past her.

I was always someone who lived in the future all the time, it was always the next thing - dreams of escape.

Sixty felt like a big landmark. Not in a dreadful sense, but none of the other birthdays have bothered me. It's got labels on it - OAP, retirement - and I just wanted to take stock. I wanted to be in my greenhouse at home and at least give myself the opportunity of not working again.

I was more like a middle child. My youngest brother was the baby, so he got all the attention that the baby gets. And my older brothers were getting into so much trouble that I was left in the middle, doing plays. I was up to no good, but my mother didn't know it!

Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.

My parents were not poor, I mean we were a very average middle-class family of academics, but my grandfather happened to have built house literally next to one of Kolkata's largest slum.

I am not someone who enjoys being followed and harassed. I prefer to stay at home with my family than to go out.