Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Salman Rushdie Quotes - Page 14

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

And at the end of the day, there was an attempt to suppress a book. The book wasn't suppressed. It's freely available in whatever it is, close to 50 languages. There was an attempt to suppress the writer. And I'm happy

And at the end of the day, there was an attempt to suppress a book. The book wasn't suppressed. It's freely available in whatever it is, close to 50 languages. There was an attempt to suppress the writer. And I'm happy to say the writer wasn't suppressed.

Book, The End Of The Day, Language

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

If a birth is the fall-out from the explosion caused by the union of two unstable elements, then perhaps a half-life is all we can expect.

Fall, Two, Elements

Salman Rushdie (1995). “The Moor's last sigh”

I thought, you know, I would probably not have seen that. On the other hand, he's obviously completely telling the truth. So, then what is that? That's - I wanted to explore that. And then I wanted to talk about how ideas are born. And the big question that the book asks in a number of ways about a number of things is that. How does a new idea come into the world?

Book, Ideas, Numbers

Human beings do not perceive things whole; we are not gods but wounded creatures, cracked lenses, capably only of fractured perceptions. Partial beings, in all the senses of that phrase.

Perception, Lenses, Phrases

"Imaginary Homelands". Book by Salman Rushdie, 1992.

So when I studied history at Cambridge, I did a special subject in that, exactly that. And then actually that - while I was studying it was where I came across the so-called incident of the satanic verses.

Special, Satanic, Study

"In 'Joseph Anton,' Salman Rushdie Writes Novelistically About His Own Life". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. October 07, 2012.

You can't assume if you do something contentious that people will be on your side. The moment violence enters the story, the story changes. Then the question is, "How do you face up to violence?" And then you have to have a no-compromise position. And this is quite simply a lesson we learn in the school playground.

School, Your Side, People

Source: www.teachingbooks.net

For a fellow who's not to much to look at, you have the instincts of a champion.

Champion, Looks, Instinct

The world is full of things that upset people. But most of us deal with it and move on and don't try and burn the planet down.

Moving, People, Upset

For many people, I've ceased to be a human being. I've become an issue, a bother, an "affair".... And has it really been so long since religions persecuted people, burning them as heretics, drowning them as witches, that you can't recognize religious persecution when you see it?

Religious, Issues, Long

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

Vulnerability of artists is definitely what makes organizations like PEN necessary because, as I tried to argue, the actual work that writers and artists do has an ornery way of surviving. Particularly in this age of the internet, it is very easy for forbidden work to be found online somewhere if you know where to look. Artists themselves, however, are in increasing danger, and not just artists. The great concern is that year after year, rising numbers of journalists are being killed in pursuit of their work.

Artist, Age, Arguing

Source: pen.org

If by some bizarre chance there turns out to be a god [...], I'm willing to bet he's an atheist too.

Atheist, Atheism, Chance

I don't know what to say about literary critics. I think it's probably best to say nothing.

Thinking, Critics, Knows

Our lives are not what we deserve; they are, let us agree, in many ways deficient.

Way, Agree, Our Lives

Salman Rushdie (2000). “The Ground Beneath Her Feet: A Novel”, p.19, Macmillan

The fact of being alive compensated for what life did to one.

Alive, Facts

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

A people that has remained convinced of its greatness and invulnerability, that has chosen to believe such a myth in the face of all the evidence, is a people in the grip of a kind of sleep, or madness.

Believe, Sleep, Greatness

"The Satanic Verses". Book by Salman Rushdie, September, 1988.

I seem to have fallen for women with missing parents. Goodness knows what it signifies.

Parent, Missing, Goodness

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.

Thinking, Agency, Events

"Salman Rushdie says he's glad he wrote The Satanic Verses". www.mirror.co.uk. October 1, 2008.

I think that a lot of us, whether we are religious or not - there are no words to express some things except religious words. For instance, 'soul.'

Religious, Thinking, Soul

If you want to be a serious writer, then you have to write what there is to write about. If you're going to pull your punches and second-guess yourself and not do things because you're worried, then don't write. Stay home and do something else.

Home, Writing, Want

Source: www.sfgate.com

When you write you in a way write out of what you think of as your best self, the part of you that is lacking in foibles and weaknesses and egotism and vanities and so on. You're just trying to really say something as truthful as you can out of the best that you have in you.

Writing, Thinking, Vanity

Source: bigthink.com

And so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.

Believe, Giving, Reason

Salman Rushdie (2008). “The Enchantress of Florence”, p.45, Random House

If you listen to the urban speech patterns there you'll find it's quite characteristic that a sentence will begin in one language, go through a second language and end in a third. It's the very playful, very natural result of juggling languages. You are always reaching for the most appropriate phrase.

India, Phrases, Speech

"Salman Rushdie". Salon Interview, www.salon.com. January 28, 1996.

Terror is glamour - not only, but also. I am firmly convinced that there's something like a fascination with death among suicide bombers.

Suicide, Fascination, Bombers

Source: www.spiegel.de

There's going to be no more compromise on issues where there should not be compromise. Enough with appeasement or apology and mollifying, all that. To hell with all that. I'm just going to fight my corner.

Fighting, Apology, Issues

Source: www.teachingbooks.net

People would come and threaten them. And they would respond by putting the book in the window. Behind that, the publishers, many of whom were menaced and receiving anonymous phone calls of the very menacing kind and so, almost everybody - not everybody, but almost everybody held the line.

Book, Phones, People

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

You May Also Like: