I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside.

I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.

I'm not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.

I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature.

As for what I listen to after writing, it could be anything - but I've noticed that if the current book contains music from one tradition, it is music from another tradition that most relaxes me.

The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of what you know, and the other nine-tenths isn't visible and never mind if that part is pure styrofoam!