On focusing on the Kamasutra: "It is most interesting to look at the unfamiliar in what is seemingly so familiar. The book is a modern commentary on sexuality and sexual desire. Vatsyayana was an ancient man who had a lot of modernity; I like to think of myself as a modern man who has a lot of ancientness."
On writing The Ascetic of Desire: "Fiction should delight the senses and stimulate the mind. My effort was to communicate the great mystery and fascination of human sexual desire. It should expand the reader's horizons and the way he thinks about his body, love, sex. Secondly, he should be transported to an idealised period of ancient India, where we were freer, at least the elite were. (Due to my practice ) I was familiar with the complexities of sexuality; all the straight lines and turns and dark corners had been stored up in the mind's computers."
