Ancestral habits of mind can be constricting; they also confer one's individuality.

In India, there are real consequences to inattention; drivers who jeopardize pedestrians can be lynched on the spot.

What was the duty of the teacher if not to inspire?

The traveler feels at home everywhere, because she is never at home anywhere.

Through my fiction, I make mainstream readers see the new Americans as complex human beings, not as just The Other.

I feel empowered to be a different kind of writer. The longer I stay here, the more light filters into my work. I feel very American. I belong.

In other words, my literary agenda begins by acknowledging that America has transformed me. It does not end until I show how I (and the hundreds of thousands like me) have transformed America.

What was the function of poetry if not to improve the petty, cautious minds of evasive children?

I am a naturalized U.S. citizen, which means that, unlike native-born citizens, I had to prove to the U.S. government that I merited citizenship.

Growing up in an old-fashioned Bengali Hindu family and going to a convent school run by stern Irish nuns, I was brought up to revere rules. Without rules, there was only anarchy.

We do things when it is our time to do them. They do not occur to us until it is time; they cannot be resisted, once their time has come. It's a question of time, not motive.

While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it.While there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

The beauty of a morning glory, is that of its patient wait for the sun to rise in the morning!

he citizens must begin to work to clean the city and country of any dirt.

I loved making Pure Country. It was a great learning experience for me, seeing another part of the entertainment industry.

In pop or rock you can make a fast song or a slow one, but in disco there is really just the one rhythm.

I do call upon a little Fish Mooney energy sometimes, believe it or not.

There is no border in my films. You can see yourself in these stories. This is the greatest thing about the power of cinema. It's very present. It's all there. You can't escape it.

The English have no exaulted sentiments. They can all be bought.

I think computer viruses should count as life.

Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer.