•My guest today is not only one of India’s most creative and most durable artists, he is also a wonderfully warm human being, the finest man to have as a friend in any city, particularly in this one — Mr Satish Gujral, welcome to Walk the Talk. And helping us in this is your talented son Mohit. I know very little about art. As you know, I’m a philistine. You’ve known me for many years now. From where do you find this creative energy? Every few years you produce so much work, and always something new. What is the secret?

It’s not a matter of the source of energy. It’s like . . . you don’t ask where I get the energy to breathe. Similarly, my energy to create is automatic. Without it I cannot live.

•Sir, hum toh pachaas sal ki umr mein buddhe ho gaye, but you carry on in your eighties.

When you are consistently in creative activity, it fills you up with a regime, a life, and a zest to live on and on. I cannot think I’m going to end. Only when I think this creativity may end, that will be the end of myself. The reason, I know: because I’m forced to live in a silent world. When there’s silence around you, the consequence is that you doubt your own being. You want to find proof of whether you exist, because nothing brings you proof that you are. Then I create, and when I create something out of nothing, it gives me proof that I’m a being, I’m there. But if I create the same thing again and again, it will be like inhaling what I have just exhaled. . . so every time, I want a new breath, a new style, a new thing to work with.

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