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Even when things are at their worst, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'Good story!'
Salman Rushdie -
My first novel - the novel I wrote before 'Midnight's Children' - feels, to me, now, very - I mean, I get embarrassed when I see people reading it. You know, there are some people who, bizarrely, like it. Which I'm, you know, I'm happy for.
Salman Rushdie
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When I'm writing books, something weird happens; and the result is the books contain a large amount of what you could call 'supernaturalism.' As a writer, I find I need that to explain the world I'm writing about.
Salman Rushdie -
Children are the vessels into which adults pour their poison.
Salman Rushdie -
Pakistan is alarmed by the rising Indian influence in Afghanistan, and fears that an Afghanistan cleansed of the Taliban would be an Indian client state, thus sandwiching Pakistan between two hostile countries. The paranoia of Pakistan about India's supposed dark machinations should never be underestimated.
Salman Rushdie -
It's Kennedy's war, Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson got all the flak, but it's Kennedy's war.
Salman Rushdie -
It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.
Salman Rushdie -
I'll tell you what divorce hasn't taught me. It didn't teach me not to get married again.
Salman Rushdie
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A purpose of our lives is to broaden what we can understand and say and therefore be.
Salman Rushdie -
Out-of-step intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and the deceased Edward Said have often been dismissed as crazy extremists, 'anti-American,' and in Mr. Said's case even, absurdly, as apologists for Palestinian 'terrorism.'
Salman Rushdie -
Certainly, the Hollywood cinema, there's almost nothing of interest coming out of there.
Salman Rushdie -
The West sees Iran as an important force in the gulf.
Salman Rushdie -
Writers have an opinion about the world and offer arguments about the world. They should offer contemplation.
Salman Rushdie -
All my adult life, if I didn't have several hours a day to sit in a room by myself, I would get antsy and irritable.
Salman Rushdie
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I don't think people cry reading 'Midnight's Children,' but a lot of people seem to cry watching the movie.
Salman Rushdie -
I only met Margaret Thatcher twice. The thing that I thought about meeting her was how extraordinarily intelligent she was. You really had to be on your game; otherwise, she'd make mincemeat of you.
Salman Rushdie -
When 'Midnight's Children' came out, people in the West tended to respond to the fantasy elements in the novel, to praise it in those terms. In India, people read it like a history book.
Salman Rushdie -
I've met the Dalai Lama briefly, but I would probably say my grandfather was the wisest person I ever met. He was my mother's father, an Indian, a family doctor, and very unlike me in that he was deeply religious.
Salman Rushdie -
The problem of telling contemporary history is that your message gets outdated.
Salman Rushdie -
I am certainly not a good Muslim. But I am able now to say that I am Muslim; in fact it is a source of happiness to say that I am now inside, and a part of the community whose values have always been closest to my heart.
Salman Rushdie
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In general, writers shouldn't be killed for what they write, though I can think of exceptions.
Salman Rushdie -
Throughout human history, the apostles of purity, those who have claimed to possess a total explanation, have wrought havoc among mere mixed-up human beings.
Salman Rushdie -
I used to say, 'There is a God-shaped hole in me.' For a long time I stressed the absence, the hole. Now I find it is the shape which has become more important.
Salman Rushdie -
Perhaps because my relationship with my father went through such a long, bumpy time, it's been very important for me to work to try to keep lines of communication open between my sons and myself to try to avoid my father's mistakes. At least if you're making mistakes, make different mistakes.
Salman Rushdie