I myself, at one time, wanted to be like the explorers of the Himalayas that I used to read about; people intoxicated on the myth of history.

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.

For everything there is a reason. Just go and search it in the big mess!

The struggle to live up to an “ideal image” of who we should be in order to feel safe misdirects and depletes our energy.

One thing I love about Christmas music is that it has a tradition of warmth.

People can look to me as a teacher, but I consider myself a student of hip-hop.

Britain wants the single currency to be a success. It is massively in our interests that we have a stable financial system on our doorstep.

I look at my contemporaries, and we're all at different stages and levels, and all choosing different routes, different ways to do things.

Teaching is a calling too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy - angels leading their flocks out of the darkness.

If rising makes you famous, don't give up rising, but find a safe port where you can be unreachable!

This contract is so one-sided that I am astonished to find it written on both sides of the paper.