I did all kind of jobs to sustain myself. I worked at a grocery store, in the public health department, and what was then Thomas Cook and Sons. The last job was particularly interesting, but I got fired from it.
— Ruskin Bond
I am hopeless with machinery. I could never learn to drive a car except into a wall.
I may not have become a good writer, but I managed to make a living out of writing.
A lot of school-going children are familiar with my writing. I am basically very much a children books author.
I use a ball pen because fountain pens are clumsy, and I get ink all over my fingers by the time I finish with it.
I won't usually just sit down to write. I'd have done it in my head already. I visualise a story just like a film strip running in my head. I guess that is also a reason why my books have such a visual element to them. And it's what I tell young writers: plan your story ahead.
I get inspiration from a lot of things around me - nature, hills, people, and even insects.
If I'm really immersed in a story, I try to finish it in a few days. If it's a longer work, then it would take a few months.
Films and books have been intertwined as far as my growing up is concerned.
For the film 'Saat Khoon Maaf,' which was adapted from my story 'Susanna's Seven Husbands,' I did collaborate on the screenplay. I even took a small role in the film, of a priest.
I used to consider myself a loner.
Ghosts are all around us. Look for them, and you will find them.
Books of exploration have always fascinated me, like somebody going up the Amazon for the first time.
I like flowers. In my next life, maybe I can be a gardener.
I keep a journal, like many writers do. It helps in writing a story, as you can use an incident from the journal and put in your story.
There was Uncle Ken of mine about whom I wrote a lot of stories. I can always write stories about uncles and aunts and distant relatives. They have to be distant, though; otherwise, you'll be in trouble.
If I set out to write 'War And Peace' or 'A Suitable Boy,' I'd be miserable.
A few years after my father's death, my mother sent me to the United Kingdom for 'better prospects' in 1951. Those four years were not easy.
The books that I wrote in my late teens and 20s, the little love stories, they were right from the heart.
Jokes apart, I, like many other, am looking for strong and stable government. I don't want any chaotic political situation where the elected government is being toppled frequently.
No, I don't want to be a brand. Brand means I cannot go out for a quiet walk without tourists and fans constantly following me.
I'm a pickle fiend. I like all kinds of pickles: garlic pickle, lemon pickle, mango pickle, jackfruit pickle, you name it.
I've never written specifically for children as such. I write to please myself, and if it is suitable, it gets printed as a children's book.
My desk is right next to my bed. So I sit on my bed. I write in a big notebook which is on the desk. And if I feel drowsy, I just have to slide into bed.
I don't overwork - a couple of hours a day is fine for me.
As a schoolboy, I loved Charles Dickens. His 'David Copperfield' has had the strongest influence on me - I looked up to David Copperfield as a role model.
One of the very first ghost stories I read - and that was in a forest rest house, where it is a bit scarier - was by M.R. James. He is one of the pioneers of ghost stories. And the book was called 'Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary.'
The ghost story is a popular genre of mine and is particularly adaptable to the visual media.
I enjoy writing personal essays in the way of Charles Lamb because it goes back to the school days when I was good in writing essays.
All my works over the years have been autobiographical in the sense they reflect some part of my life, although I have fictionalised them to an extent.
I have no real regrets.
I have always discouraged young writers from self-publishing, by which I mean going to a vanity publisher and spending your hard earned savings - say, some two-three lakhs - and getting your book printed. It's not published; it's printed!
My first, 'Room on the Roof,' was the longest book I've written.
One has to be ambitious to start writing.
When I was growing up, I remember having read all the books in the library. I often tried to emulate my favourite writers.
Writing for children may have kept me young at heart.
I have been naturally inclined towards mountains, trees, flowers, and rivers.
I'm not very good at writing fantasy or even reading it.
From the age of 17 through my 20s, I was living on my own, so sometimes I wouldn't even tell anybody it was my birthday. It was not a big thing for me.
I think I'm from the 18th century, not even the 19th. I don't even use a typewriter. I prefer longhand, and that's how I submit my manuscripts to my publishers.
I used to type, but now, typing or working with a computer, I get a stiff neck. So I prefer writing longhand.
I fortunately have a good memor, and that helps a lot in the way I write.
It's nice to have awards from time to time. There was a time when I had to make a living from my writing, and it wasn't always easy. I value awards a lot - and more so if there is a little cash with them!
Many people told me such convincing ghost stories that I felt that there really were ghosts, though I hadn't seen any. And though I still haven't seen a ghost, I feel that they are all around us; we are just not aware of them being there.
Whenever I run out of people to write about, I cook up a few ghosts, or they appear before me.
The older you get, the lesser you are bothered by what others think.
I always look for a bookshop wherever I go.
I had a bad habit of falling in love with any girl who was nice to me.
I am a compulsive writer.
Small places intrigue me. Whenever I tried moving to a larger city, I ran back to the hills.
