I think growing up in such a small town - before cell phones, before the Internet, before Facebook, before we had access to people's interiors - there was a great deal of space between people's lives. I spent a lot of time imagining into the lives of the people I grew up with.

There are times when I'll send a manuscript to an editor, and I'll think it is the most likely project I've ever sent them. And they might call me the next morning and say they couldn't tolerate it. That happens so frequently that I've given up any expectation of knowing what anybody's going to like.

Public speaking, for me, or speaking even in front of a handful of people is my greatest fear.

I think of the part of me that writes as the most private self. It's the part that's engaged the least with the rest of the world's needs.

My parents were just searching for an alternative way of raising their children.

I like to buy books for the kids in my family. I guess that's why they call me the 'mean' aunt.

I was the youngest child and the only son. I was expected to shine in academics. It seemed like too big a risk to take up cricket as a career. I thought I had to live up to my family's expectations. So I chose to be an engineer.

What helped me was I had people around me to remind me to help my country even when it did me wrong, have respect for my people, my family, my nation and mankind.