“At the end of the day, I’m a composer. Finally, I have to deliver my music to the public. I can’t keep hiding behind a keyboard…. Facing people is like going to war for me…it’s almost like death!”
- A R Rahman, music director whose tunes rock the marquee

“Any fool can do a terrific building, given everything. Enough land, a huge budget, complete control over design. It is in working with restrictions and scanty resources that genius shows.”
- Hafeez Contractor, irreverent architect who has set his imprint on many a metropolis

“Amitabh Bachchan is just another name. What does power have to do with it? It would be a terrible day for an artiste to be completely satisfied.”
- Amitabh Bachchan, towering brand icon and the colossal ‘Big B’ of Hindi cinema

“I haven’t spent a single birthday at home since I was 12…. I missed out a lot on my childhood. I feel that it was a heavy price to pay but I have no regrets. Having achieved all the goals I set for myself as a child, I am more than happy.”
- Leander Paes, tennis ace who speaks as well as he serves

“I still don’t look upon myself as a star. Shah Rukh (Khan) and Salman (Khan) are more star material.”
- Aamir Khan, sensitive actor with a repertoire of cutting-edge roles

“As a writer, the best thing I can ever hear is that people have been moved by my book…moved either to tears or to laughter, I mean, that’s so important, such a crucial part of what one does as a writer.”
- Amitav Ghosh, novelist, journalist and professor with an anthropological bent of mind

“I try to show the ultimate overcoming of any struggle. It’s the journey of the spirit that counts, not just overcoming it in the physical sense.”
- Shekhar Kapur, effortlessly charming director who seamlessly fires the imagination

“I know that people expect me to work wonders all the time…. But honestly, I am not God! It is just that sometimes you click, at other times, you fail. But isn’t that life... and cricket?”
- Sachin Tendulkar, iconic batsman who’s created history on the pitch

“There is no question of competition with your own teammates. We are living out of each other’s pockets for nine months in a year. We want to better our own goals and slaughter the opposition, not each other.”
- Rahul Dravid, gentleman captain of the Indian cricket team

“I never had to write dialogues for minor films to pay the rent. It’s easier to be cool about things, not to take life too seriously, when you haven’t been through the grind.”
- Farhan Akhtar, hip Generation Next director

“A lot of actors can do it, I can’t. I don’t have that spontaneous talent. My talent is about my hard work; how I work at it to get to where I am.”
- Hrithik Roshan, reigning hot bod of the silver screen

“Artistes have realised that they need to secure the future of their families…. There are no longer any patrons, any maharajas to support them.... Artistes have learnt to think money, so what’s wrong with that?”
- Zakir Hussain, engaging tabla maestro whom the ladies love

“I am not antsy but I still have to have that one film...that one defining moment. I will hang upside down to get perfection…I don’t give my 100 per cent to my work…I give it my all.”
- Shah Rukh Khan, actor with an energy that is limitless

“There is no compromise. If we need 40 metres, we will use 40. Not five metres and make it look like 40, because it never actually can.”
- Abu Jani, fashion designer with a finger on the appeal of the vintage

“I feel good and special when someone calls me sexy or hot. If you are exceptional in some way, why hide it? I am not at all self-conscious about my body or my hot image…. I accept all the compliments graciously.”
- John Abraham, haute actor who sizzles in the torrid zone

“I may not express my sense of competition openly but I definitely always want to be at the top.”
- Karan Johar, film director, talk show host, model, costume designer…a man of many moods and roles

“I would like to make the cinema that I want to see. My benchmark is: ‘Am I laughing or crying?’ If it works for me, I assume it will work for everyone.”
- Rajkumar Hirani, the man behind the cult Munnabhai series

“My heart and mind have always been in the state. I was never one to kid myself that I had a role to play at the Centre.”
- Omar Abdullah, dapper politician with an endearing friendliness

“I don’t take fame seriously. After all it’s part of my job. It’s transient. I know the fame might not last; only my films will.”
- Naseeruddin Shah, film and theatre actor with a penchant for offbeat performances

“I have a kind of India in my mind, that I have been carrying around and no one can take that away from me.”
- Salman Rushdie, international writer, unfazed by controversies

“My whole life is lived over the top. My greatest enemy is mediocrity. When you abhor mediocrity, everything that you do will be over the top. I am unpredictable in what I think and what I do, so why try to hide it. That’s the real me.”
- Rohit Bal, fashion guru who exults in being different

“I see myself as a human being with a number of reactions to the world, some of which manifest themselves in my writing, some in my work. If I gave up one or the other, part of my psyche would wither on the vine.”
- Shashi Tharoor, global columnist with a diplomatic bent of mind

“My personality was entwined with the brands I started.... Glamour sells. In America there are a million like me but in India, anyone with aspirational value is lapped up.”
- Vijay Mallya, suave tycoon always on a roll

“The fact that people were investing us with so much, when all we’d done was an anti-corruption story, made me aware of how desperate we are as a country for hope, when even the smallest chink represents a ray of light for us.”
- Tarun Tejpal, trendsetting investigative writer and novelist

“I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t socialise. I am so boring.... I wish that I was not so shy. In all honesty, it’s a hindrance to my business.”
- Shahab Durazi, the reclusive designer whose silhouettes are to die for