The Indian diaspora is a wonderful place to write from, and I am lucky to be part of it.
Kiran Desai
If you write a lovely story about India, you're criticized for selling an exotic version of India. And if you write critically about India, you're seen as portraying it in a negative light - it also seems to be a popular way to present India, sort of mangoes and beggars.
I do think that the modern India does belong to writers who are living in India.
I feel as comfortable anywhere as I feel uncomfortable anywhere.
I don't think you can write according to a set of rules and laws; every writer is so different.
When I was growing up the publishing world seemed so far away. When my mother wrote a book, she would look up the address of publishers on the backs of the books she owned and send off her manuscript.
When you write on your own, you can write the extremes. No one else is watching and you can really go as far as you need to.
The publishing world is very timid. Readers are much braver.
We think of immigration as a Western issue but, of course, it isn't.
New York is a lovely city. It is an easy city to go back to and an easy city to leave. Every time I go there I immediately make travel plans.
In India, if you are from the elite, dogs are extremely important. The breed of the dog indicates your wealth, that you are westernized. The cook, another human being, is on a much lower level than your dog. You see this all the time.
I love Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Flannery O'Connor. I read a lot of American writers.
I'm always in the kitchen, cooking and experimenting - I love it. And every now and then I think, 'I should write a cookbook' or, 'I should write for food magazines.' And then I get drawn back to writing fiction again.
