Jhumpa Lahiri

You can't have a hit every time. The main thing is to keep on working and not be afraid to take risks. It's better to do something that's not perfect and successful every time. It's important to be fearless and move forward, to learn from what went wrong.

The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SF writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.

I will tell you this: I have fun, a lot of fun with 'The Apprentice.' When I did the books - and now we have a book out. And all the time, books are prestigious. But there's sort of nothing like having the big hot show on television.