Home / Authors / Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie Quotes

Novelist

Salman Rushdie (born June 19, 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. Known for his magical realism style, his novel Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize in 1981. His works often explore themes of cultural conflict, religion, and politics. In 1988, his novel The Satanic Verses sparked global controversy, leading to a fatwa issued by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini calling for his assassination. Rushdie spent years in hiding under police protection. He remains a prominent voice in contemporary English literature, celebrated for his literary innovation and defense of free expression.

Filter quotes by topic

All People Ifs World Thinking Writing Book Stories Knows Way Humans

Famous Salman Rushdie Quotes

“The accidents of my life have given me the ability to make stories in which different parts of the world are brought together, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes in conflict, and sometimes both - usually both. The difficulty in these stories is that if you write about everywhere you can end up writing about nowhere.”

Ifs World Writing Different Ends Sometimes Stories Together Given Ability Conflict Difficulty Accidents

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I think if we wish to live in any kind of a moral universe, we must hold the perpetrators of violence responsible for the violence they perpetrate. It's very simple. The criminal is responsible for the crime.”

Ifs Thinking Kind Universe Wish Simple Moral Violence Crime Responsible Criminals Perpetrators

Author:Salman Rushdie

“It's so disappointing, to put it mildly, that people know so much about my life. Because it means that they're always trying to look at my books in terms of my life.”

People Knows Trying Looks Mean Book Term Always Trying Disappointing

Author:Salman Rushdie

“But there's one thing we must all be clear about: terrorism is not the pursuit of legitimate goals by some sort of illegitimate means. Whatever the murderers may be trying to achieve, creating a better world certainly isn't one of their goals. Instead they are out to murder innocent people.”

People World Trying May Mean Goal Clear One Thing Achieve Creating Murder Terrorism Pursuit Innocent Murderer Setting Goals

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Friendships are the family we make - not the one we inherit. I've always been someone to whom friendship, elective affinities, is as important as family.”

Important Affinity

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I do think of Bombay as my hometown. Those are the streets I walked when I was learning to walk. And it's the place that my imagination has returned to more than anywhere else.”

Thinking Imagination Walks Streets My Imagination Hometown Bombay

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I don't feel American. I do feel like a New Yorker. I think there's a real distinction there. A city allows you to become a citizen even when you're not a national.”

Thinking Feels Real Cities Citizens Distinction New Yorkers

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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.”

People Ifs Looks Ideas Order Evil Individual Understanding Good And Evil

Author:Salman Rushdie

“In the '50s, listening to Elvis and others on the radio in Bombay - it didn't feel alien. Noises made by a truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi, seemed relevant to a middle-class kid growing up on the other side of the world. That has always fascinated me.”

World Feels Made Kids Sides Class Growing Up Growing Middle Listening Radio Noise Aliens Middle Class Drivers Relevant Fascinated Truck Mississippi Kids Growing Up Bombay Truck Driver

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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 Way Feels Literature Understanding Imagination Doors Mysterious

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Someone asked me if I was afraid to write my memoirs. I told him: 'We have to stop drawing up accounts of fear! We live in a society in which people are allowed to tell their story, and that is what I do.'”

People Ifs Writing Stories Accounts Drawing Memoir

Author:Salman Rushdie

“There are two things in Indian history - one is the incredible optimism and potential of the place, and the other is the betrayal of that potential - for example, corruption. Those two strands intertwine through the whole of Indian history, and maybe not just Indian history.”

Two Whole Example Optimism Incredibles Corruption Betrayal Indian Two Things Strands

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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.”

People Rooms Party Four Dinner Noise Loud Detest Nightclubs Four Friends

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Anyone who has had the experience of going through American security checks knows the purpose of these checks is not to make you safer; it's just to annoy you.”

Knows Purpose Security Checks Annoying

Author:Salman Rushdie

“As a writer, one of the things we all learned from the movies was a kind of compression that didn't exist before people were used to watching films. For instance, if you wanted to write a flashback in a novel, you once had to really contextualize it a lot, to set it up. Now, readers know exactly what you're doing. Close-ups, too.”

People Ifs Knows Writing Kind Wanted Film Used Novel Reader Instance Flashback Compression

Author:Salman Rushdie

“At the height of the British Empire very few English novels were written that dealt with British power. It's extraordinary that at the moment in which England was the global superpower the subject of British power appeared not to interest most writers.”

Moments Interest Novel Written Subjects England Extraordinary British Height Empires Superpower British Empire

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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.”

People Men World Ideas Country Seems Might Able Young Poverty Economic Shapes Married Islam Rage Young Man Decent Decline Good Living Decent Life

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Doris Lessing really doesn't care what the critics say. In fact, she orders her publishers not to send her the reviews and gets cross with them if they do because she doesn't want that in her head. She's going where she's going, and that's where she wants to go.”

Ifs Want Facts Care Order Crosses Critics Reviews Publishers Dori

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.”

Book Feelings Next Terrible The Next One

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Have you noticed the physical resemblance between Imran Khan and Gaddafi? If you were making a movie of the life of Gaddafi and you wanted a slightly better-looking version of Gaddafi, you might cast Imran Khan.”

Ifs Might Wanted Casts Versions Resemblance Gaddafi

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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 Humans Two Literature I Believe Born Differences Human Beings Novel Metaphor Primaries Uniqueness Simile

Author: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.”

Heart Facts Able Values Community Source My Heart Closest Source Of Happiness

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is telling you to finish it.”

Ifs I Can Book Reading Walks Numbers Unattractive Bookshops

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I do have a lot of time for people in my life, and friendship is a very important subject for me. I think I'm unusual among the writers I know in that respect.”

People Thinking Knows Important Subjects Unusual

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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 Knows Periods Pressure Intense Sanity Day To Day

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I don't read my books, I write them. Once I've finished the many years it usually takes me to write them, I can't bear to read them, because I've spent too long with them already. I'm not advertising them very well, am I?”

Writing Years Wells Long I Can Book Bears Finished Advertising Take Me

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I have always thought, the secret purpose of the book tour is to make the writer hate the book he's written. And, as a result, drive him to write another book.”

Writing Book Purpose Hate Results Secret Written

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I have had many more close women friends than men, and I've always assumed that comes from the fact that in my family there was such a disproportionate female element.”

Men Facts Elements Female My Family

Author: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.”

Games Mets Intelligent Meetings

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I saw Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained,' and you could say a lot of things against it, but it was incredible fun. I don't like blood and gore and I am very squeamish about violence, but Tarantino's violence is actually funny.”

Fun Saws Violence Blood Incredibles Gore Quentin Tarantino Blood And Gore Django Django Unchained

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I think, in a written novel, the way in which you play with the readers' emotion or the way in which you engage the readers' emotions can be very indirect. You could come at it through irony or comedy, etcetera, and you could capture people's sympathies and feelings kind of by stealth if you like.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Kind Play Feelings Emotion Novel Comedy Written Reader Irony Capture Indirect Stealth Etcetera

Author: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.”

Long Important God Used Shapes Long Time Absence Holes Stressed Stressed Out

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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.”

Knows Writing Years Two Ideas Hard Used Three Found Opinion Know How Week New York Months Difficulty Extremes Columns New York Times Columnists Syndicate

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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.”

Years Children Ideas Force Subjects Majors West Absurd Our Society

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I was very happy in Bombay. I was good at school. There was no reason to change anything. I suppose it must have been some spirit of adventure, of wanting to see the world.”

World Has Beens Reason School Spirit Adventure No Reason Very Happy Bombay Spirit Of Adventure

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I would argue that religion comes from a desire to get to the questions of, 'Where do we come from?' and 'How shall we live?' And I would say I don't need religion to answer those questions.”

Needs Desire Answers Arguing

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I'm a reader of Chinese literature, I like their films, but also: I've had great difficulty getting my work published in China; very little of it has been published there. The first two attempts to have all of my work published, for instance, were refused without any reason ever being given.”

Firsts Littles Has Beens Two Reason Film Literature Given Reader Difficulty China Instance Chinese

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I'm not a very big fan of 'Slumdog Millionaire.' I think it's visually brilliant. But I have problems with the story line. I find the storyline unconvincing.”

Thinking Stories Problem Bigs Lines Fans Brilliant Millionaire Storyline Slumdog Millionaire

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.”

Thinking Persons Government Young Felt Republican Rap Fascinated Totalitarian Government

Author: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.”

Persons Mother Father Religious Mets Doctors Indian Grandfather My Grandfather Wisest Lama Dalai

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I've never seen anywhere in the world as beautiful as Kashmir. It has something to do with the fact that the valley is very small and the mountains are very big, so you have this miniature countryside surrounded by the Himalayas, and it's just spectacular. And it's true, the people are very beautiful too.”

People World Facts Bigs Beautiful Mountain Valleys Spectacular Countryside Very Beautiful Miniatures Kashmir Himalayas

Author:Salman Rushdie

“If I had simply wanted to trade on an insult to Islam, I could have done it in a sentence rather than writing a 250,000-word novel, a work of fiction.”

Ifs Writing Done Wanted Fiction Novel Trade Islam Sentences Insult

Author:Salman Rushdie

“If I were dead, then nobody in England would have to fuss about the cost of my security and whether or not I merited such special treatment for so long.”

Ifs Long Special Security Cost England Treatment Special Treatment

Author:Salman Rushdie

“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.”

Ifs World Country Dream Principles Modern Islam Terrorism Boards Humanist Defeated

Book:Step Across This Line

Source: Step Across This Line

“If the culture shifts, if people think differently about women, the art will shift, too. You can't ask art to make social change. It's not what it's for.”

People Ifs Thinking Art Culture Asks Social Social Change

Author:Salman Rushdie

“If there were Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, it makes it certain there would be a reprisal attack against the United States at some point.”

Ifs States Would Be Certain United United States Nuclear Israeli Facility Iranian Reprisal

Author:Salman Rushdie

“If you live in free countries, you don't have to spend all your life arguing about freedom because it is all around you. It seems redundant to make a lot of noise about something when, in fact, there it is. But if someone tries to remove it, it becomes important for you to formulate your own defenses of it.”

Ifs Trying Important Country Facts Seems Defense Arguing Noise Remove Redundant Free Country

Author:Salman Rushdie

“If you look at Indian movies, every time they wanted an exotic locale, they would have a dance number in Kashmir. Kashmir was India's fairyland. Indians went there because in a hot country you go to a cold place. People would be entranced by the sight of snow.”

People Ifs Looks Country Would Be Wanted Numbers Cold India Sight Hot Snow Indian Exotic Kashmir

Author:Salman Rushdie

“If you're on a freeway and want to know if you're being followed, what you do is enormously vary your speed. You accelerate to 100 and slow down to 30 and then accelerate again. In a city, you make a lot of turns against the stream of traffic. You go around a roundabout twice.”

Ifs Knows Want Turns Cities Speed Streams Traffic Slow Down Vary Accelerate Freeways

Author:Salman Rushdie

“In an ideal world, you could reunite the Pakistan-occupied part of Kashmir with the Indian-occupied part and restore the old borders. You could have both India and Pakistan agreeing to guarantee those borders, demilitarise the area, and to invest in it economically. In a sane world that would happen, but we don't live in a sane world.”

World Happens Areas Ideals India Indian Borders Guarantees Sane Pakistan Kashmir Ideal World India And Pakistan

Author:Salman Rushdie

About the Author

Born: June 19, 1947
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 808

Related Topics

People Ifs World Thinking Writing Book Stories Knows Way Humans

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Satanic VersesRelated source material

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight NightsRelated source material

The Ground Beneath Her Feet: A NovelRelated source material

QuichotteRelated source material

Haroun and the Sea of StoriesRelated source material

The Enchantress of FlorenceRelated source material

Midnight's ChildrenRelated source material

Midnight’s ChildrenRelated source material

In good faithRelated source material

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted MurderRelated source material

Similar Authors

Paul AusterBrowse related quotes
George SaundersBrowse related quotes
Stephen KingBrowse related quotes
Neil GaimanBrowse related quotes
Joyce Carol OatesBrowse related quotes
Jeanette WintersonBrowse related quotes
Anna QuindlenBrowse related quotes
Margaret AtwoodBrowse related quotes
Sandra CisnerosBrowse related quotes
Junot DiazBrowse related quotes