“The trouble is Indians aren't used to being prosperous. We are more comfortable dealing with poverty- after all, poverty has been the staple here, and has been for many centuries.”

“Indian food is like classical music raga- it takes time to build up to a crescendo.”

“Mediocrity comforts the masses. Mediocrity is a likeable attribute.”

“Even as I took a long, hard look at some of the obvious downsides (Q: 'What are the three things keeping India down? A: Corruption, corruption and corruption.'), I still felt the upsides (Q: 'What is so fantastic about the India story? A: People, people and people.') tilted the scales in our favor.”

“God had the males of the world neatly divided: the can-dos and the no-can-dos. To that he'd added a third category: 'the gandus'. Very few men would make it to the can-do category.”

“On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government.”

“To seek "causes" of poverty in this way is to enter an intellectual dead end because poverty has no causes. Only prosperity has causes.”