A few years after my father's death, my mother sent me to the United Kingdom for 'better prospects' in 1951. Those four years were not easy.

As a schoolboy, I loved Charles Dickens. His 'David Copperfield' has had the strongest influence on me - I looked up to David Copperfield as a role model.

Sometimes good stories are created while documenting dreams.

I think I'm from the 18th century, not even the 19th. I don't even use a typewriter. I prefer longhand, and that's how I submit my manuscripts to my publishers.

I have been naturally inclined towards mountains, trees, flowers, and rivers.

The Nehru years were rather very peaceful years. A lot happened in those years: dams were built, five-year plans were made, Chandigarh was built in front of my eyes. Those were the years I grew up in.

It's nice to have awards from time to time. There was a time when I had to make a living from my writing, and it wasn't always easy. I value awards a lot - and more so if there is a little cash with them!

I was a bookworm in school, and in those days it was easy to get books. Bigger cities had book shops.

There was Uncle Ken of mine about whom I wrote a lot of stories. I can always write stories about uncles and aunts and distant relatives. They have to be distant, though; otherwise, you'll be in trouble.

I have been apolitical all my life.

I used to consider myself a loner.

I use a ball pen because fountain pens are clumsy, and I get ink all over my fingers by the time I finish with it.

When I was growing up, I remember having read all the books in the library. I often tried to emulate my favourite writers.

The transition from an English father to a Punjabi stepfather demanded an adjustment that was far from easy for a 10-year-old boy who had just lost his father.

Solitude helps you reflect.

Writing is the only thing I am good for.

Whenever I run out of people to write about, I cook up a few ghosts, or they appear before me.

Yes, I do seek solitude, but I am never lonely.

Films and books have been intertwined as far as my growing up is concerned.

My mother wanted me to join the Indian army, as the army was seen as a decent and respectable career to have. I shocked my mother by telling her that I wanted to be a writer.

I suppose in the long run, it's the good work that outlasts the shoddy work, but there's enough room for all kinds of writing.

No, I don't want to be a brand. Brand means I cannot go out for a quiet walk without tourists and fans constantly following me.

I may not have become a good writer, but I managed to make a living out of writing.

I enjoy writing personal essays in the way of Charles Lamb because it goes back to the school days when I was good in writing essays.

If you live in America, you need a gun, and I am not very fast with a gun, so I think I would walk out very quickly.

I'm rather fond of my awards.

The ghost story is a popular genre of mine and is particularly adaptable to the visual media.

If I'm really immersed in a story, I try to finish it in a few days. If it's a longer work, then it would take a few months.

It is okay to experiment with language. Writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf experimented with writing, but basically, one must have a familiarity with the language. And to have that, one must respect it.

Holidays can become tedious without something to read.

I always look for a bookshop wherever I go.

In India, not enough importance is given to writing for children. And what could be more important than the enrichment of young minds with great literature?

The books that I wrote in my late teens and 20s, the little love stories, they were right from the heart.

The older you get, the lesser you are bothered by what others think.

I'm quite good at talking about things I care about.

You can make bleak things funny but if you're glib about it, it doesn't work.

Whenever I come to Ireland, I end up just bantering with the crowd so the show will just be what it is.

I get panic attacks about dying, it's terrible. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and my brain goes 'you're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die.'

I spent a lot of my childhood sat on a wall thinking, waiting for my mum to pick me up.

My Mum is not used to being in-front of camera.

Whenever the word 'weird' is mentioned it can only be an insult.

I'm happy when I'm working.

Neither me or my wife are any good at cooking.

I'm not really a cake man. I'm more a savoury guy.

Oddly, I am really cool under pressure.

I don't like doing things badly, that just feels like a waste of a day.

There's a club called Headliners in Chiswick where I do a lot of my warmups for tours. For me it's a nice 'big-small' room: it's a 300 seater, which feels small but you can still get big laughs.

In the summer Regent's Park is one of the best places in the world with every nationality playing every sport.

The British Museum is great for seeing how excellent we were at stealing things.

It's really frustrating when you write a show and it's really funny and someone and from Standards and Decency says, 'You can't put that in because it has a naughty word.'