I Am Not Much Of A Researcher

In Pakistan, Many Of The Young People Read Novels Because In The Novels, Not Just My Novels But The Novels Of Many Other Pakistani Writers, They Encounter Ideas, Notions, Ways Of Thinking About The World, Thinking About Their Society That Are Different. And Fiction Functions In A Countercultural Way As It Does In America And Certainly As It Did In The, You Know, '60s.

My Mother Has Been To Mecca To Perform Her Hajj; My Dad Hasn't. I Come From A Very Liberal Family, So Even The People Who Are Outwardly Religious Tend To Subscribe To Gender Equality, The Importance Of Open-mindedness, All That Stuff. My Family Is Generally Nonprescriptive.

The Animosity Between India And Pakistan Is Deeply Unfortunate And Dangerous, And It's Something I've Long Campaigned To Reduce. But Right Now, When There's Artillery Being Exchanged In Kashmir - Which Is Not For From Here, Either - And There Are 100-ish Nuclear Weapons On Each Side Of The Border, There's Never Really Been A Case Like This Where Two Nuclear Armed Countries Are Happily Shelling Each Other.

America's Strength Has Made It A Sort Of Gulliver In World Affairs: By Wiggling Its Toes It Can, Often Inadvertently, Break The Arm Of A Lilliputian.

I Am A Strong Believer In The Intertwined Nature Of The Personal And The Political; I Think They Move Together.