Salman Rushdie Quotes
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The reason why books endure is because there are enough people who like them. It's the only reason why books last.
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The people suffering most from the Taliban were Afghans.
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When you write, you write out of your best self. Everything else drops away.
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I used to write a monthly column for the 'New York Times' syndicate. But I stopped because I found it really hard to have one extreme opinion a month. I don't know how these columnists have two or three ideas a week; I was having difficulty having 12 things to say a year.
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A poet's work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.
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Sometimes great, banned works defy the censor's description and impose themselves on the world - 'Ulysses,' 'Lolita,' the 'Arabian Nights.'
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Originality is dangerous.
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The question I'm always asking myself is: are we masters or victims? Do we make history, or does history make us? Do we shape the world, or are we just shaped by it? The question of do we have agency in our lives or whether we are just passive victims of events is, I think, a great question, and one that I have always tried to ask.
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Discovery is fun. I am incredibly open to everything.
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The answer to religion is not no religion, but another way of thinking of it. Another way of being in it.
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The sixty-minute drama form has become very rich.
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I do think that there is such a thing as human nature, and that the things that we have in common are perhaps greater than the things that divide us.
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I'll tell you what divorce hasn't taught me. It didn't teach me not to get married again.
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If you're offended, it's your problem.
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I'm not saying I am never going to fall in love again, but there is no need to marry.
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Actually, I don't even like parties. I would much prefer a room with four friends who sit around and have dinner. I detest nightclubs. And I don't like places where the noise is so loud you can't talk to people.
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I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women.
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The acceptance that all that is solid has melted into the air, that reality and morality are not givens but imperfect human constructs, is the point from which fiction begins.
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In the real world, immeasurable hurt is caused by terrorists based in Pakistan who attack countries like India.
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This is going to make me sound ancient, but I remember Juhu Beach when there weren't any buildings on it. You'd go through countryside and arrive at this amazing beach. I remember driving from Delhi to the Qutab Minar through countryside. Mehrauli was a little village - that's all gone.
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It is a funny view of the world that a book can cause riots.
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What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry.
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Certainly, poverty and economic decline have a lot to do with the so-called rage of Islam. You've got all these young men in countries which are economically in bad shape. The idea that they might be able to make a good living and get married and have a family, a decent life, seems very remote to a lot of people in a lot of the world.
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You don't that often see writers being sought out when there are matters of great moment to discuss. And I think that's a loss.