When I was growing up, I remember having read all the books in the library. I often tried to emulate my favourite writers.

Films and books have been intertwined as far as my growing up is concerned.

Books of exploration have always fascinated me, like somebody going up the Amazon for the first time.

My mother wanted me to join the Indian army, as the army was seen as a decent and respectable career to have. I shocked my mother by telling her that I wanted to be a writer.

A culture that only recognizes and rewards the same set of attributes results in less collaboration, creativity, and innovation. If we only reward the loudest voices or the sharpest elbows, then we're missing out on the full range of talent.

In schools giving students a full education, not to create great artists but about the right to have full expression and imagination and creativity, along with an acknowledgement that everybody learns differently. You try and you fail and you try again. All those skills are useful in the workplace, too.

When we are angry or depressed in our creativity, we have misplaced our power. We have allowed someone else to determine our worth, and then we are angry at being undervalued.

I think that a good deal of poetry and art gives us some sense of access to another's voice, perception, texture of thought, imagination. Sometimes it gives us better access to the strangeness in ourselves.