As an Indian, you feel easily connected with certain histories in places like Indonesia, where one sees, because of the presence of the Hindu-Buddhist past, Hindus still living there or Muslims performing rituals that are instantly familiar.

If your writing collides with the conventional wisdom, there's going to be some kind of friction.

The Arab Spring showed that people are not going to wait for an American president to make good on his big talk about democracy and human rights; they are going to fight for those rights themselves and overthrow pro-American dictators who stand in their way.

'Islamism' itself is such a broad and nearly meaningless word as used by the mainstream Western press, including everything from Turkey's AKP party to al Qaeda.

If you think of India in the 1980s, there weren't many writers in English around. The ones that were there, Amitav Ghosh or Vikram Seth, were living abroad or publishing from abroad.

I grew up in small towns in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra - places like Akola, Betul, Wardha, Jhansi; I thought the rise of provincial India would be an interesting subject to tackle.

Basically, I think of fiction and non-fiction as different ways of engaging with the world. You reach a point where you feel you have said all you possibly can, in reportage or a review essay or a reflection on history, which 'From the Ruins of Empire' was.

Force-backed humanitarianism, which relies on rational influence over events in other countries, may have been a more feasible project in the bipolar era of the Cold War, with its relatively defined and stable web of alliances and proxies.

After India and China, Indonesia was the biggest new nation-state to emerge in the mid-twentieth century.

Like the Britain of Beaverbrook and Kipling, Japan in the early twentieth century was a jingoistic nation, subduing weaker countries with the help of populist politicians and sensationalist journalism.

As a young man in South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century, Gandhi developed satyagraha, a mode of political activism based upon moral persuasion, while mobilizing South Africa's small Indian minority against racial discrimination.

Gandhi's ideas were rooted in a wide experience of a freshly globalized world.

To Westerners, the students at Tiananmen may have given an impression of a solid and energetic consensus against dictatorship and for democracy, but they were an egotistical and fractious lot, riven by disagreements over tactics and money.

As the spiritual leader of six million people, the Dalai Lama can be credited with a significant renunciation of the authority of tradition - of the conventional politics of national self-interest as well as of religion.

The Dalai Lama can claim the sanction of the Buddha, who is said to have altered his teachings in order to reach a diverse audience.

Though blessed with many able administrators, the British found India just too large and diverse to handle. Many of their decisions stoked Hindu-Muslim tensions, imposing sharp new religious-political identities on Indians.

Ineptitude and negligence directed British policies in India more than any cynical desire to divide and rule, but the British were not above exploiting rivalries.

Many ethnic minorities chafed at the postcolonial nationalism of India and Pakistan, and some rebelled.

In the 1950s and 60s, geopolitical intrigues did not much engage masses in Asia and Africa; it was something for elites to sort out.

National independence, and the preceding political struggles, helped create the space for literary creation in many post-colonial countries. Much of modern Indian or Chinese literature is inconceivable without the political movement for freedom from foreign rule.

Local markets for literary fiction remain underdeveloped; the metropolis often holds out the only real possibility of a professional writing career.

Many writers from the suburbs of history, such as Ireland and Argentina, produced more original work than their counterparts in the United States; they still seem to.

In a democratic age, you can't buck demography - except through civil war.

After the oil crisis of 1973, many European countries tightened restrictions on immigrants. By then, millions of Muslims had decided to settle in Europe, preferring the social segregation and racial discrimination they found in the West to political and economic turmoil at home.

Ordinary Muslims in Europe, who suffer from the demoralisation caused by living as perennial objects of suspicion and contempt, are far from thinking of themselves as a politically powerful, or even cohesive, community, not to speak of conquerors of Europe.

Many Indians and Israelis seem set to elect, with untroubled consciences, those who speak the language of torturers and terrorists. More disturbingly, these corrupted democracies may increasingly prove the norm rather than the exception.

In December 2004, I travelled on the road from Uzbekistan across the Oxus River on which the first Soviet convoys had rolled into Afghanistan 25 years before.

It's strange to recall that America animated none of my youthful daydreams. I did not see a Hollywood film until my late teens.

Britain's unique success as an industrialised nation-state prompted strong imitative endeavours not only across Europe, but also in Asia. Now many people, who were once humiliated into a sense of nationality by British rule, loom larger than their former masters.

Though there are laws against blasphemy and insult to religion in many European countries, France has institutionalised its anti-clerical past by proscribing religion from public life.

Governments everywhere that are unable to guarantee equitable growth and social welfare have suffered a fatal decay of legitimacy.

I did not become an actor to earn money - that I could have done it in my village by becoming a farmer. I wanted to show my craft, which I am so passionate about.

Anurag Kashyap is someone whose projects I can take without even hearing the story.

An actor must read a lot. Books not only make one a good actor but also a better human being.

I think reading and travelling not only make us good artistes but also broaden our horizons and open our mind. It really helps us to become a good human being.

I admire many actors, including Amitabh Bacchhan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Irfan Khan, and many more.

People can forget your name, but if you excel at what you do, at least someone will remember you.

In life, we have two segments: arts and science. We need science to make our lives easier. But what do we live for? We enjoy life through arts. So it's an artistes duty to question the wrongs happening in the society.

Not everyone can handle success, but look at Rajinikanth. His films release all over India, his fans worship him and what not. But when I first met him, I felt like he is one of us.

Survival is important, art is secondary. If you aren't alive, how can you create art?

I am still a villager who fell in love with acting.

Commercial films give you a wide exposure. For 'Dilwale,' I got calls from countries like Oman. Its reach is huge. Similarly, doing independent projects satisfy the actor in you.

In 'Stree,' I play a character who believes that he knows everything. And I play a cop in 'Drive.' It is a different kind of a role. It is not a uniform-wearing character. The film is interesting, since it is a thriller.

I come from the family of farmers. I am a son of a farmer.

One mistake and all this attention may just disappear one fine day. So I prefer to remain grounded.

Sharan is a very talented director, well versed with his craft.

My father wanted me to become a doctor.

Cinema is not just a medium of entertainment. Yes, it should entertain, but cinema is made to convey a message, to say something.

I had never imagined that after coming to Mumbai that, as an actor, my dates would be booked in six-eight months in advance.

When a man is extremely lonely, he starts discovering himself.