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Salman Rushdie Quotes - Page 13

All Quotes Age Arguing Art Atheism Atheist Belief Betrayal Birth Blasphemy Censorship Challenges Character Childhood Children Choices Christianity Conflict Country Crime Criticism Culture Desire Destiny Doubt Evil Falling In Love Fate Feelings Fighting Film Free Speech Freedom Freedom Of Speech Fun Giving Growing Up Growth Hate Heart Hell History Home Honesty Human Nature Identity Imagination Islam Journey Language Liberty Life Literature Loss Love Lying Magic Memories Mountain Optimism Past Perception Perspective Pride Prophet Reading Reality Religion Revolution Running Safety Satire School Shame Silence Son Soul Speed Storytelling Struggle Study Terrorism Tolerance Values Victory Violence War Water Worry Writing

How does newness come into the world? How is it born? Of what fusions, translations, conjoinings is it made? How does it survive, extreme and dangerous as it is? What compromises, what deals, what betrayals of its

How does newness come into the world? How is it born? Of what fusions, translations, conjoinings is it made? How does it survive, extreme and dangerous as it is? What compromises, what deals, what betrayals of its secret nature must it make to stave off the wrecking crew, the exterminating angel, the guillotine? Is birth always a fall? Do angels have wings? Can men fly?

Betrayal, Fall, Angel

Salman Rushdie (1989). “The Satanic Verses”, New York, N.Y. : Viking

Very often in free speech cases you find yourself defending material that you personally detest, because of course it's no trick to defend the free speech of people you either agree with or who don't particularly upset you. It's when people really upset you that you discover if you believe in free speech or not.

Believe, People, Upset

Source: www.teachingbooks.net

If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is based, and without which their countries' freedom will remain a distant dream.

Dream, Country, Islam

Salman Rushdie (2008). “Step Across This Line”, p.219, Random House

Many men start being friendly with women because they are trying to seduce them. I'm not trying to seduce them. I just like hanging out with them.

Men, Trying, Friendly

You don't just - you often have to defend the freedoms of people you don't like, you know, whose work you don't like, because freedom of speech is not just for serious people. It's also for trashy people. So, and, unfortunately, this is at the trashy end of the scale.

People, Freedom Of Speech, Serious

And using that - the birth of a religion, it suggests that you have got two tests. You have the test of weakness. When you're weak, do you compromise, do you bend, do you give in, do you accommodate? And then the test of strength. When you're strong, are you merciful, are you generous, or are you cruel?

Strong, Two, Giving

"In 'Joseph Anton,' Salman Rushdie Writes Novelistically About His Own Life". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. October 7, 2012.

I do think there was a period there when my sanity was under intense pressure, and I didn't know what to say or do or how to act. I was literally living from day to day.

Thinking, Pressure, Sanity

I learned: the first lesson of my life: nobody can face the world with his eyes open all the time.

Eye, World, Lessons

"Midnight's Children". Book by Salman Rushdie, 1981.

There is no magic on earth strong enough to wipe out the legacies of one's parents.

Strong, Parent, Magic

"Midnight's Children". Chapter 27, "The Shadow of the Mosque". Book by Salman Rushdie, 1980.

Some people are paralyzed by the consciousness of death, other people live with it.... The fatwa certainly made me think about it a lot more than I ever had. I guess I know I'm going to die, but then, so are you.

Thinking, People, Consciousness

The Salon Interview, www.salon.com. January 27, 1996.

You want all your books to stick around after you've gone.

Book, Gone, Want

Too many people had spent too long demonizing or totemizing me to listen seriously to what I had to say.

Long, People

"Excerpts From Rushdie's Address: 1,000 Days 'Trapped Inside a Metaphor'". Speech at Columbia University, archive.nytimes.com. December 12, 1991.

Happy endings must come at the end of something,' the Walrus pointed out. 'If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for awhile.

Cheer, Adventure, Stories

Salman Rushdie (1990). “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”, Penguin Books

Human beings, you see, do absolutely two primary things. We see like and unlike. Like becomes, in literature, simile and metaphor. Unlike becomes uniqueness and difference, from which I believe, the novel is born.

Believe, Two, Differences

A book is a product of a pact with the Devil that inverts the Faustian contract, he'd told Allie. Dr Faustus sacrificed eternity in return for two dozen years of power; the writer agrees to the ruination of his life, and gains (but only if he's lucky) maybe not eternity, but posterity, at least. Either way (this was Jumpy's point) it's the Devil who wins.

Book, Winning, Years

Salman Rushdie (1989). “The Satanic Verses”, New York, N.Y. : Viking

It's true that the human body is more vulnerable than the products of the human mind. We need to protect artists and journalists people to allow them to work.

Artist, People, Mind

Source: pen.org

Sometimes you find your voice by trying to write like people, and sometimes you find it by trying to write unlike people.

Writing, Voice, People

You start at the stupid end of the book, and if you're lucky you finish at the smart end.

Smart, Stupid, Book

Life is lived forward but is judged in reverse.

Life Is, Reverse, Judged

Nobody ever recognizes themselves unless they are not the character. There are many people who have claimed to be in my books, but unfortunately they were usually people that I didn't know.

Book, Character, People

Source: brightestyoungthings.com

It is literature which for me opened the mysterious and decisive doors of imagination and understanding. To see the way others see. To think the way others think. And above all, to feel.

Thinking, Doors, Imagination

I am gagged and imprisoned. I can't even speak. I want to kick a football in a park with my son. Ordinary, banal life: my impossible dream.

Football, Dream, Son

Salman Rushdie (2012). “Joseph Anton”, p.170, Random House

I grew up falling in love with kind of story, amazing, wonder tale of the East, which if you're a child growing up in India is all around you.And I think one of the gifts it gave me as a writer was this early knowledge that stories are not true.

Falling In Love, Children, Growing Up

Source: www.pbs.org

In the experience of art, time seems not to exist. When I'm writing and think, "I've been working for two hours," I've actually been working for seven.

Art, Writing, Thinking

It's true that the human body is more vulnerable than the products of the human mind.

Mind, Body, Vulnerable

"The Art of Bravery: An Interview with Salman Rushdie". Interview with Shaun Randol, lareviewofbooks.org. April 25, 2013.

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