Quote

I learned the enormous power of writing for yourself, especially now that people seem to be receptive to the fact that women can write.

I just assumed that if you were a girl-child, you were supposed to grow up and write.

I never wrote for children. I wrote with respect for the audience, which I've maintained all my life. Doesn't mean I couldn't be risque, but I did it smartly, without being vulgar.

I was gravely warned by some of my female acquaintances that no woman could expect to be regarded as a lady after she had written a book.

Growing up with three boys in a heavily male-dominated world, I especially needed to express myself as a woman.

I used to forget that I was an Indian woman. I would even forget that I was a woman. I don't think of myself as bringing to the table a lot of 'women's issues.' I don't feel the need to write about maternity. I grew up thinking that the talented people in comedy were hard-joke writers.

A lot of women say to me, 'You know, I really hated you because my kids wanted you to be their mother.'

Think of Virginia Woolf, 'A Room of One's Own' - that's what women have always needed under patriarchy and can't be creative without. They took away my classroom and my status to teach, and now they have taken away my office, and all of it is giving the message that Virginia Woolf and I are losing what I call 'womenspace.'

Writing as a woman presents enormous problems but I have attempted it several times and haven't had many complaints.

When I wrote 'Kidulthood,' I didn't even know there was going to be a 'Kidulthood.' I just wanted to test myself to see if I could write a script.