You put cow dung on my face?’ ‘Every day religiously until you were three. Why else do you think your skin is so clear?

Where are the coconut trees bowing allegiance to the wind, the wide open spaces, the verdant green fields?

But he’s an untouchable, Shirin.’ ‘He’s my Untouchable Prince Charming, then. Only I am allowed to touch him.

There’s a great drought in my village. People are dying. The price of rice and pulses has rocketed. There is no water anywhere. And here, people are complaining about the rain...

What am I doing here, Reena? Why am I dancing to the tunes of that old hag?’‘You are saving your family.

Sometimes, it is easier to leave things as they are, rather than to fight, go against the flow.

What wouldn’t my people give for a few bites of the biryani she ordered me to throw away yesterday because she said it smelt?

Every family has secrets, Reena, and they’re there for a reason.

I wash the clothes, rinse them and then scrub them again. Will that square little box do that? I am not using any fancy machines when my hands will do.

What better hiding place than an old, woodlice-ridden album of photographs!

The result always mattered more than the rhetoric.

He who is in love with himself has no rivals.

Start first and increase your lead.

The usual rejoinder to someone who says 'They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Galileo' is to say 'But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown'.

We are what we do, especially what we do to change what we are.

First impressions matter. Experts say we size up new people in somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes.

I love you and I always will and I am sorry. What a useless word.

They [my sons] all went to different schools and all did different things. They're about as different for five kids as you'll ever see. They don't do anything the same.

Bands that I've loved over the years are the ones that have a certain myth around them.

I'd rather do theater and British films than move to L.A. in hopes of getting small roles in American films.