Despite all the boosterish talk of globalization breaking down barriers, most writers in Anglo-America are still working within the nationalist assumptions of their traditionally powerful societies.

Gandhi saw how people have to re-think their own individuality before engaging in political activity. Otherwise they're just playing the game that the adversary has set out.

In America, you don't even have proper holidays. It's really one of the most prosperous slave societies in history. People work their asses off all year long and get two weeks off! It's incredible.

The people who encouraged me weren't necessarily writers or readers themselves. They were people who were just pleased to see me devote my life to reading and writing.

I found it really disturbing to see a novelist writing a diatribe about Islam and Muslim radical extremists, blurring the distinction between the two.

The idea that human beings can make history, that is something quite unique to the modern West.

We need to infuse politics with ideas like compassion and empathy, and a sense that we live in an interdependent world.

The asymmetries of power that have shaped relations between the West and the rest of the world also exist in the realm of literary criticism.

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

Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature.

In the modern world, nationalism remains a very important force. We delude ourselves into thinking that globalization has made all of that redundant and that everyone just wants to be like America.

Upnext" is your success... but before that, remember "up there" is your God who requires from you to be "upright" to fulfill your destiny! Be "up" and keep going!

The things left unsaid to people we care about, and the void those unspoken words leave, often have more impact than what is said.

On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no veteran behind.

Feminism is sort of like God. Many people profess to believe in it, but no one seems to be able to define it to everyone's satisfaction.

A lifetime isn't long enough to learn how to make films.

I'm about to be shot 150 feet up in the air. I feel queasy!

Apply just the right amount of force — never too much, never too little.

As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.

Most apparent conspiracies result from consistent local self-interest with no need for global coordination.

All satanic works are performed from the outside inward; all divine works from the inside outward.