terrorism is interesting to a novelist because it's a crime that's driven by an idea, as opposed to some kind of base materialist impulse. It's not like stealing from someone's house, or even assassinating someone. There are very complex ideological… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
There's no way of preventing the media from covering attacks as huge events and until the media stops doing that, they will be huge in people's consciousness, and we have to treat these things differently from the smaller random acts… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
When we talk about 9/11 and 26/11 - which is the shorthand for the Mumbai attacks in 2008 - we're talking about the most… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
I'm more interested than Philip Roth in understanding women, even if I do it imperfectly. But that book, Portnoy's Complaint, is literary punk in… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
You can say that a small attack is one in which relatively few people die, but the minute you say that, you can sense… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
There's a hustling, but also a self-centred vibe you can get from people in Delhi. — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
I think Indians will pick up on a lot of the direct commentary on Delhi, which Americans will obviously miss, while Americans might get… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
In Delhi, where I grew up, commerce is brusque. You don't ask each other how your day has been. You might not even smile.… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
In some ways, the best novel about terrorism, though it's not a novel, is 'The Looming Tower' by Lawrence Wright or 'Perfect Soldiers' by… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
Literature has become too psychological. We discount the physical, when in fact much of life is physical. People's personalities are partly formed by, or… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
When more Chinese started coming after the Gold Rush, employed on large projects like the Pacific Railroad, anti-Chinese sentiment became shrill. — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
“What has she got? Nothing but years and years of heartbreak, of being pushed physically, I am sure, into the country of her mother’s cancer. When she married me, with my encouraging smile and my famous family, she probably thought she was gaining security—exactly the thing she craved after that tiny lifeboat of a family in Bangalore. Instead she got… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share
It's easier to set off a bomb that kills innocent civilians in a market than it is to plot an assassination, but that obviously was true before as well. I also think it's now easier to get attention for a small attack that goes off in a random market. It's almost like there's a marketplace for terror in the media,… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share
How do you prevent attacks from becoming the very fabric of lived life in a city? Of course it's very easy to say you… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
