Salman Rushdie Quotes

A collection of quotes by Salman Rushdie.

Salman Rushdie is a renowned British-Indian novelist and essayist, best known for his iconic novel "Midnight's Children." He was born on June 19, 1947, in Mumbai, India. Rushdie spent his early childhood years in Mumbai before moving to England to pursue higher education. He attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied history and graduated with honors.

Rushdie gained critical acclaim and international recognition for his second novel, "Midnight's Children," published in 1981. The novel, which won the Booker Prize, tells the story of Saleem Sinai, a child born at the stroke of midnight on India's independence day. It beautifully weaves together magical realism, historical fiction, and political commentary.

Throughout his career, Rushdie continued to push boundaries with his writing, exploring themes of identity, religion, politics, and the power of storytelling. His works often reflect his own experiences as a British Indian navigating a complex cultural landscape.

In 1988, Rushdie attracted widespread controversy and faced death threats following the publication of his novel "The Satanic Verses." The book was seen as blasphemous by some Muslims, leading to a fatwa issued by Islamic extremists calling for his death. This event forced Rushdie into hiding for several years.

Despite the challenges and risks, Rushdie remains a prolific writer, having published numerous novels, essays, and memoirs. He has been awarded numerous honors, including the Booker Prize, the Golden PEN Award, and knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature. Salman Rushdie's work continues to captivate and inspire readers around the world.

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first t

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness second, their imagination, and third, their industry.

There is a widespread difficulty in the Muslim world, which

There is a widespread difficulty in the Muslim world, which has to do with how the people are taught about examining their own history. A whole range of stuff has been placed off limits.

The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conse

The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.

Por Ãºltima vez en la vida se preguntÃ³ si habÃa malgastado

Por Ãºltima vez en la vida se preguntÃ³ si habÃa malgastado su amor en una mujer que solo daba su amor hasta que llegaba el momento de retirarlo. ApartÃ³ el pensamiento de su cabeza. HabÃa entregado su corazÃ³n esta Ãºnica vez en la vida y se consideraba afortunado de haber tenido ocasiÃ³n de hacerlo. La cuestiÃ³n de si ella era digna de su amor carecÃa de sentido. Su corazÃ³n habÃa contestado a esa pregunta hacÃa mucho tiempo

Love Amor

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

Freedom

If you take a look at history, you will find that the unders

If you take a look at history, you will find that the understanding of what is good and evil has always existed before the individual religions. The religions were only invented by people afterwards, in order to express this idea.

History

...because it is the privilige and the curse of midnight's c

...because it is the privilige and the curse of midnight's children to be both masters and victims of their times, to forsake privacy and be sucked into the annihilating whirlpool of the multitudes, and to be unable to live or die in peace.

Life Peace Privacy Anonymity Forsaken

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms.

Freedom

I've never had very high regard for therapists. I owe my hea

I've never had very high regard for therapists. I owe my health, my mental survival, to my friends and loved ones.

Health

A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds,

A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.

Poetry

If you actually want to change your world, there is a better

If you actually want to change your world, there is a better way of doing it than blowing yourself up.

Change

The only way of living in a free society is to feel that you

The only way of living in a free society is to feel that you have the right to say and do stuff.

Society

Literature is the one place in any society where, within the

Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.

Books

If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give

If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you're dumb and blind.

Language

The response of anybody interested in liberty is that we all

The response of anybody interested in liberty is that we all have a say and the ability to have an argument is exactly what liberty is, even though it may never be resolved. In any authoritarian society the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside he will come after you.

Society

What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is some

What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.

Power

If I were asked for a one-sentence sound bite on religion, I

If I were asked for a one-sentence sound bite on religion, I would say I was against it.

Religion

I was 21 in 1968, so I'm as much a child of the '60s as is p

I was 21 in 1968, so I'm as much a child of the '60s as is possible to be. In those years the subject of religion had really almost disappeared the idea that religion was going to be a major force in the life of our societies, in the West anyway, would have seemed absurd in 1968.

Religion

Vertigo is the conflict between the fear of falling and the

Vertigo is the conflict between the fear of falling and the desire to fall.

Fear

I do not need the idea of God to explain the world I live in

I do not need the idea of God to explain the world I live in.

God