Karan Mahajan

When we talk about 9/11 and 26/11 - which is the shorthand for the Mumbai attacks in 2008 - we're talking about…

— Karan Mahajan

I'm more interested than Philip Roth in understanding women, even if I do it imperfectly. But that book, Portnoy's Complaint, is literary…

— Karan Mahajan

You can say that a small attack is one in which relatively few people die, but the minute you say that, you…

— Karan Mahajan

There's a hustling, but also a self-centred vibe you can get from people in Delhi.

— Karan Mahajan

I think Indians will pick up on a lot of the direct commentary on Delhi, which Americans will obviously miss, while Americans…

— Karan Mahajan

In Delhi, where I grew up, commerce is brusque. You don't ask each other how your day has been. You might not…

— Karan Mahajan

In some ways, the best novel about terrorism, though it's not a novel, is 'The Looming Tower' by Lawrence Wright or 'Perfect…

— Karan Mahajan

Literature has become too psychological. We discount the physical, when in fact much of life is physical. People's personalities are partly formed…

— Karan Mahajan

When more Chinese started coming after the Gold Rush, employed on large projects like the Pacific Railroad, anti-Chinese sentiment became shrill.

— Karan Mahajan

“What has she got? Nothing but years and years of heartbreak, of being pushed physically, I am sure, into the country of…

— Karan Mahajan

It's easier to set off a bomb that kills innocent civilians in a market than it is to plot an assassination, but…

— Karan Mahajan

How do you prevent attacks from becoming the very fabric of lived life in a city? Of course it's very easy to…

— Karan Mahajan

If India hadn't become a troubled space for me, somehow I wouldn't have any reason to write about it. So the fact…

— Karan Mahajan

I don't know what you can do if it's reported that there's been a small attack in the second- or third-largest city…

— Karan Mahajan

The West, in the form of American capitalism, is seen as having won, but people are beginning to offer alternatives again, sometimes…

— Karan Mahajan

I'm pretty private as a person - people generally think they know more about me than they do, because I gregariously advertise…

— Karan Mahajan

I don't think sexual repression leads to violence, but I can see the situation where you're trying very hard to be very…

— Karan Mahajan

The only solace can come from the state. In the Boston bombing, only a handful of people died in the end, even…

— Karan Mahajan

After a post-Bill Berry softening with albums like 'Up' and 'Reveal,' R.E.M. seems to be toughening up again; on the strength of…

— Karan Mahajan

It's rare that you get to read, let alone teach, an arbitrary canon of your choosing in a tight time setting, and…

— Karan Mahajan

If Asian America exists, it is because of systemic racism.

— Karan Mahajan

People love talking about the banality of evil and the fact that ordinary people do bad things. I actually want to stay…

— Karan Mahajan

Terrorists are people, too - they are given to error. Naipaul and then DeLillo do a good job in their novels of…

— Karan Mahajan

People are rushed and inspired by the success of Indian writers, and are falling over themselves to write novels. Every Indian is…

— Karan Mahajan

“They’d been sleeping on the floor next to the bed ever since the boys had died. This was because the boys, though…

— Karan Mahajan