I think our conception of literature should accommodate not only apolitical writers but also those whose political opinions we find unpalatable. Fict….

I don't feel any great need to subscribe to a certain notion of Buddhism that says "You have to do this" or "You have to do that." Buddhism does not ….

I've never really felt that being part of a literary community is all that important. It can be extremely detrimental to a writer. It can damage succ….

I think a more complex idea of fiction - and the human self's relationship with the world - emerges when we abandon this philistine equation between ….

No one is obliged to take a position on the urgent issues of the day, but there are times when our impoverished public sphere could do with some occa….

There is a lot of anxiety in India about writers selling out to foreign audiences, but I’m neither flattering the Indian audience nor the American au….

There are some serious limitations in Mo Yan's situation as a writer in China today - just as there are for Jia Zhangke, one of the world's greatest ….

The whole idea of mindfulness is all about having a second-level monitoring of your thoughts and being able to recognize them as being negative or ha….

When I first decided to be a writer, that meant dealing with preoccupations and concerns that took little account of Indian traditions. I saw India's….

Most suffering is human-made and avoidable. It's mostly in your head..

Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature..

Writers in the nineteenth century - people like George Eliot and Flaubert - were accustomed to addressing particular communities with which they shar….

You have to be able to decide, 'Well no, I'm not going to be violent, I'm going to suppress that impulse; I'm not going to be greedy.' Unless you're ….

Nietzsche's vision of the superman is of someone who's able to control and tame his passions and turn them into something richer than raw emotion and….

I wrote for many years without showing my writing to anyone, because I was constantly comparing it to what I was reading. You have to compare yoursel….

The American writer is a very pampered figure - by foundations, by fellowships, by publishing advances. Even though I am not American, I have been pa….

The internet has created a transnational audience. If you publish something in the New York Times, it's read all over the world. Who knows how big th….

There was great political uncertainty in South Asia at the time of the Buddha. The older small tribal societies were cracking up and gave way to bigg….

When I moved to London in the 1990s, it had changed a great deal. Racism had become deeply uncool. But there has been a return of racism in the guise….

The whole Hollywood conception of Tibet as this peace-loving country denies the complex humanity of the Tibetan people. Their ideas exist in a high d….

The internet has spawned people for whom knowingness is more important than knowledge. It equips you with the illusion of offering knowledge instantl….