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I wanted to be a story teller so badly.

You don't get shouted at at the 'Guardian.' Nobody bullies you at the paper; nobody tells you what to write. Now, I love working in that atmosphere; I am free to research and write what I want.

As soon as I was old enough to drive, I got a job at a local newspaper. There was someone who influenced me. He wrote a column for The Guardian from this tiny village in India.

I wanted no other job than to work in newspapers. I was fascinated by the process of collecting information, talking to people and having the story appear in a paper that would be delivered in your letterbox.

I always wanted to be some kind of writer or newspaper reporter. But after college... I did other things.

God, why do I give interviews to 'the Guardian'? They always try to dissect you, and I don't really think about stuff in the way that you're asking me these questions.

I considered that I had to write stories about the people I had met, with whom I'd worked, the history of my books - just in case I up and die.

I approach writing stories as a recorder. I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting.

I think of myself as an assistant storyteller.

When the 'Guardian' is commissioning writers to write obituary pieces about you and your career... it doesn't get much nastier than that. And you've just got to go, 'It doesn't actually matter.'