Pursuits
Author Mohsin Hamid on His Latest Novel and McKinsey Past
The Pakistani-born novelist on writing fiction part-time at McKinsey, reading standing up, and drones
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You had a successful career in business before you published your first novel. How did you end up as a writer?
I stumbled into consulting. I didn’t know how you could make a living trying to write fiction. So I went to law school and had this enormous debt, so I interviewed for a job at McKinsey.
What did your colleagues at McKinsey think when you published Moth Smoke in 2000?
I was working on it in the evenings and on weekends. People were quite excited and supportive. I pitched this notion of working nine months a year and writing three. And I did that for a few years at McKinsey.