Writing A Novel Is Like An Amusement

The Ethnocultural Connotations Of The Burkini Ban Are Very Strong. It's As Absurd As Mandating That Women Have To Go Topless On The Beach. If I Were A Woman, I Definitely Would Not Want To Wear A Burkini Or A Headscarf. But It's Not About What I Want.

But When You Read A Book, What You See Are Black Squiggles On Pulped Wood Or, Increasingly, Dark Pixels On A Pale Screen. To Transform These Icons Into Characters And Events, You Must Imagine. And When You Imagine, You Create.

My Aunt Used To Say, "it's Between Me And My God; It's Got Nothing To Do With You." It Was A Good Enough Answer For Me As A Snot-nosed College Kid Angling For A Religious Debate, And I Still Think It's A Good Way Of Putting It.

I Come From An Enormous And Very Close Family. I Have Over A Dozen Aunts And Uncles In Pakistan, Dozens Of Cousins. I Have Many Close Friends. I Have Received So Much Love In Lahore That The City Always Pulls Me.

I Would Have Bet Money That Britain Would Not Vote To Leave The Eu, And I Would Have Been Wrong. I Would Have Bet Money That Trump Would Not Have Been The Republican Nominee, And I Would Have Been Wrong And I Certainly Would Have Bet Money That He Wouldn't Win The Election.