We all become afraid. We all look at others and think these other people are more fortunate than us.
AKHIL SHARMAWe all become afraid. We all look at others and think these other people are more fortunate than us.
AKHIL SHARMAThe little babies are missing their families from their past lives.
AKHIL SHARMAErnest Hemingway has been the most important influence on me as a writer. But at a certain point as a writer,
AKHIL SHARMAThe tears loosen their memories so they can slide away. They cry at the life they have lost, and then they cry at everything they’ll forget.
AKHIL SHARMAAs a teacher, I can help my students see what is working and not working. I can show them certain solutions.
AKHIL SHARMAIt is hard to create a first-person narrator that can be a child and yet is able to take in enough information for the narrative to be legible to the reader.
AKHIL SHARMAIf anybody reads an Indian newspaper, all these things are obvious, and so I am not breaking news. All I am doing is representing my community as it actually is.
AKHIL SHARMAThere are also so many emotional aspects to money – feelings of inadequacy, feelings of security. I am not sure if there needs to be more about money in fiction, but the absence of this aspect can make a story feel somehow frictionless and unreal.
AKHIL SHARMAIt’s easy when you grow up in fear to act out of fear. I don’t want to embrace that fear; I prefer to be kind.
AKHIL SHARMAAs a human being living one’s life, one is more open to relief when there is rain or the expectation of rain. That readiness for hope gets manifested in my stories and that of many other Indian writers.
AKHIL SHARMAFor me, a lot of the humor comes not from innocence but from characters trying to figure out how to get what they need. I don’t try to be funny, but am relieved when an opportunity comes up for humor.
AKHIL SHARMAFor me, a memoir is nonfiction and nonfiction has to be absolutely true.
AKHIL SHARMASeven years into writing a novel, I started to lose my mind.
AKHIL SHARMAWhile a dramatized scene is a way of proving and guaranteeing an emotional experience for the reader, exposition assumes that the reader is sophisticated and can see the universal.
AKHIL SHARMAI can guide them to books that will serve as role models. Largely, though, one learns to write almost like developing muscle memory, and this requires years of effort.
AKHIL SHARMAMy parents are deeply pious Hindus.
AKHIL SHARMA