My life has gotten a little more complicated than my ability to describe it. That used to be the definition of madness, now it's just continuous overload.

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.

The true axis of evil in America is the brilliance of our marketing combined with the stupidity of our people.

Music- what a powerful instrument, what a mighty weapon!

You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.

I don't damsel well. Distress, I can do. Damseling? Not so much.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

Eternal love made me.

Beware of the clever ones; the dumb ones are safer.

Opportunity is infinite; once you know that, opportunity is omni-existent.

God is not the Creator, He is creativity. Creativity is His being. He has always been creating.

There are laws about personal protection so it's rare to see a politician criticized. Normally, according to the law, there's a judicial problem with calling people by their real names.