“So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name. The problem’s name is God.”

Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.

We cannot allow religious hooligans to place limiting points on thought.

What’s real and what’s true aren’t necessarily the same.

For every snake, there is a ladder; for every ladder, a snake.

Our lives, our stories, flowed into one another’s, were no longer our own, individual, discrete.

One of the strange things about violent and authoritarian regimes is they don’t like the glare of negative publicity.

No, I don’t think it’s fair to label Islam ‘violent.’ But I will say that to my knowledge, no writer has ever gone into hiding for criticizing the Amish.

The only people who see the whole picture,’ he murmured, ‘are the ones who step out of the frame.

One of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions.

It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.

I don’t dictate to anyone what to believe and what not to. And I don’t want that to be dictated to me either.

Even when things are at their worst, there’s a little voice in your head saying, ‘Good story!’

If you’re offended, it’s your problem.

If somebody’s trying to shut you up, sing louder, and if possible, better.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

We are the storytelling animal.

Start thanking God that He’s fighting your battles, thanking Him that He’s making a way where you don’t see a way.

Invite God Into Your Difficulties.

I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.

If you find no one to support you on the spiritual path, walk alone.

It’s wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears

God’s word is like medicine. When you meditate on it, it brings healing and wholeness.

If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further.

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one