Arundhati Roy in interview with Linden Thornton (October 1997)

As a child growing up in Kerala where her grandmother ran a pickle factory, Arundhati Roy dreamt of being a writer but, out of the need to earn a living, she went on to pursue a degree in architecture. A truly free spirit, she did a number of jobs, including selling cakes on beaches in Goa, before marrying a filmmaker and turning to acting and script-writing.