Yann Martel

I'm still learning my craft.

Every book I've written has been a different attempt to understand something, and the success or failure of the previous one is irrelevant. I write the book I want.

The language of prose is very different than the language of cinema, so the movie has to successfully translate what was in the book.

Any writer will be happy and good only if they know what they're doing and why they're doing it.

I love Canada. It's a wonderful political act of faith that exists atop a breathtakingly beautiful land.

Cinema is visually powerful, it is a complete experience, reaches a different audience. It's something I really like. I like movies.

I'm looking at a dead event and trying to give it new life. In a sense, I'm a taxidermist.

Life of Pi' was actually a very simple novel to write.

In all big cities the style of life is the same. Same endless array of restaurants; same big museums with the usual suspects; same anonymity, which can be thrilling when you're young but which I found got tiresome.

If I didn't have children, I think my life would be a failure.

How do you live with evil? Art is traditionally - certainly with my secular background - the answer, but art is very self-referential, whereas religion claims to go beyond the bounds of human existence.

I'm happy pretty well anywhere on this big, beautiful planet.