Novel Writing Is Solitary Work.

I Think I've Always Been Drawn To The Second Person. When I Was Growing Up And Playing With My Friends, The Usual Way We Interacted With Imaginary Worlds Was As Characters: A Bench Was 'your' Boat, Leaves On A Lawn Were The Fins Of Sharks Out To Get 'you.'

In Pakistan, Many Of The Young People Read Novels Because In The Novels, Not Just My Novels But The Novels Of Many Other Pakistani Writers, They Encounter Ideas, Notions, Ways Of Thinking About The World, Thinking About Their Society That Are Different. And Fiction Functions In A Countercultural Way As It Does In America And Certainly As It Did In The, You Know, '60s.

Capitalism Is Like The Law Of The Jungle With A Few Rules. There Isn't Another System That Works For Our Society But Left Unchecked, Capitalism Can Have A Dehumanising Effect.

I'm Often Surprised That, You Know, You Encounter All Types Of Humanity. And Very Often, There Are Some Very Decent People Who Don't Stereotype Even When You Might, In Your Own Mind, Have Stereotyped Them To Think That They Will.

I Don't Listen To Music When I Write. I Need Silence So I Can Hear The Sound Of The Words.