When I try to understand somebody, create a character, I fall into them. When I think writers are telling me what to think, I get harrumphy.

I can see a version of my life where it all becomes meaningless. On a good day, writing seems noble. Other times, it's narcissistic and pointless.

I suffer from vertigo. It's paralyzing in extreme situations. The most scared I've been as an adult was trying to conquer that fear by going climbing in Wales.

I'm fascinated by the emergence of a global class. They're highly mobile; they reject the idea of place.

In my early teens, science fiction and fantasy had an almost-total hold over my imagination. Their outcast status was part of their appeal.

Intellectuals who live in Hungary, or who wish to work or lecture there, are extremely circumspect in their criticism.

There are still some terrible cliches in the presentation of Indian fiction. The lotus flower. The hennaed hands. In mainland Europe, people still slap these images on my books and I go bananas.

Critchley and Webster’s fierce, witty exploration of Hamlet makes most other writing about Shakespeare seem simpleminded.

There's an explosion of Indian fiction of all kinds, from military thrillers to chicklit. I think that's exciting.

Suburbia is all about private ownership and not having to share, and it leads to a paranoid, defensive mindset. I know this, having grown up in Essex.

Some books I've kept because the binding is beautiful - I'm unlikely ever to read my grandmother's copy of 'The Life of Lord Nelson.' I'm addicted to secondhand bookshops.

I've always played sport, ever since I was little. I played volleyball and I believe sport teaches you a lot, such as teamwork, respect and discipline.

I think it's going to be a very important, unique data set in terms of measuring the behavior of your lower body in space and trying to figure out what we can do to preserve bone and muscle density.

I dont really believe in regret or mistakes. I try to take everything as it is, be comfortable with myself.

The black church often has reinforced certain self images that are damaging to black peoples' beauty, black peoples' confidence.

The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.

Life is nothing until it is lived; but it is yours to make sense of, and the of it is nothing other than the sense you choose.

You have to know that your collaborators want you to make the movie that you want. Don't back down because you think it's nice to them. You need to have the film be the way that you want it.

True love is not selfish. In time it accustoms itself to anything which secures happiness for its object.

I look at B.J. Penn as one of the best boxers in the business. He's got one of the best jabs around.

If I had a ghost living on my street. I would try to stay alive, and offer him some meat!