You know how if you’re born in a certain situation you always expect your life to run on a steady trajectory? I’ve never really had a sense of that. I assume that life is going...

while she wanted to look neither to her past nor her future, she lived exclusively in both. They had took different paths, but they had journeyed, so she realized, together.

People don’t get involved with local charities or politics because they think it’s hard to make a difference and the problem feels overwhelming. But I believe that if all I’ve time for this year is...

Apa yang tidak kuketahui-saat masih muda dulu-ada dua jenis cinta. Jenis yang bermula begitu dahsyatnya dan pelan-pelan menghilang, yang terasa seperti tak akan pernah habis lalu suatu hari tahu-tahu ludes. Lalu ada jenis yang tadinya...

The thought of writing was always pleasant, but the process was painful

I don’t want to get hung up on what ‘people,’ that nebulous mass, think about me. That’s the way to unhappiness, I think.

Spreading rumours is our national past time

They were both lost in cities that would not pause even to shrug

I’m very eclectic in my music tastes – anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.

All the while, when Nazneen turned to her prayers and tried to empty her mind and accept each new thing with grace or indifference, Chanu worked his own method. He was looking for the same...

If you think you are powerless, then you are

People always want to identify a writer with their protagonist.

Chanu spoke loudly, he weighed his words like gold and threw them about like a fool.

A new car is not going to change your life.

Character is always my driving force. And to tell a good story and to provide an entertaining read.

Some writers are more natural public performers than others; personally I find it quite strange giving interviews. But everyone has parts of their job that they like more than others. You can’t complain if you...

I always try to create conflict and drama in my books; it’s the engine of the novel.

I like Beryl Bainbridge a great deal, and she is a writer who absolutely demands to be read a second, third, and fourth time. I admire her great courage in leaving so much unsaid and...

I wish I got a lie-in on Saturday mornings but I never do.

I guess there’s a sort of cycle with writing books. There’s all the researching and then the imagining and writing – which is the real job – and then there’s always a period when the...

I rarely get a moment to myself, but I love the way that my agenda is dictated by the children, not my work.

I started writing ‘Brick Lane’ when my children were two years and five months old. We were on holiday in the north of England when I was overtaken by a compulsion to start writing.

I get really excited if I think I’m going to introduce somebody to a writer they haven’t found before and I think they’ll love. My favorite books to get as gifts are any that the...

I was always an outsider, always standing outside, observing and trying to figure things out. Which is exactly what you need to do as a writer, I suppose.

Outside of interviews, I spend very little time thinking about myself. I spend time thinking about my writing and my children and other things that are pertinent.

The thing about getting older is that you don’t need everything to be possible any more, you just need things to be certain.

Kids are naturally inventive and curious and creative, but most adults have had that beaten out of them. Writing is a form of play; you have to get rid of all those internal censors that...