You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed, or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hi, this is Mike Silverblad, and this is Bookworm.

I'm here today with Hanif Kureshi, the author most recently of the Buddha of Suburbia, published by Viking,

and the screenwriter of My Beautiful Laundrette, as well as of Sammy and Rosa get laid. It's a great pleasure to have

you here. You know, reading this through this book, I think I hopped around more excitedly than I've

hopped for any book this year. It was a great pleasure to read a coming of age-age novel that seemed to have genuine experiences in it,

as opposed to experiences that came from other coming-of-age novels.

Well, it's very sweet of you to admit to having hopped around for a book,

and there are not many critics of books who admit to having experienced physical excitement

when having read a book.

No, Borkov always claimed that he knew when a book was good because the hairs on the back

of his neck stood up.

I suppose the things that I write, and especially the Buddha of Suburbia, are combinations of real experience, of social experience,

of the social experience, say, of racism,

or living in some sort of divided society.

Yet at the same time, I feel that I'm a comic writer as well,

and that's just the way I see the world.

And so I try and make people laugh in the way that the world makes me laugh and yet deal

with serious stuff as well.

And I suppose my beautiful laundrette was the first example of that combination of dealing

...