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Quote by Salman Rushdie

“In my unhappiness I persuaded myself that my father's disdain for his daughter was the natural state of affairs, the healthy state, and my female nature was the plague. But here we are at the truth, and it is he who is sick and I am who am well. What is the poison in his body? Maybe it's himself.”

Quote by Salman Rushdie

Work

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

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Author

Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie

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. more

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“What the Swots had studied deeply was the art of forbidding things, and in a very short time they had forbidden painting, sculpture, music, theatre, film, journalism, hashish, voting, elections, individualism, disagreement, pleasure, happiness, pool tables, clean-shaven chins (on men), women’s faces, women’s bodies, women’s education, women’s sports, women’s rights. They would have liked to have forbidden women altogether but even they could see that that was not entirely feasible, so they contented themselves with making women’s lives as unpleasant as possible.”

“Tu eri innamorato, naturalmente senza saperlo, della donna, di un’astrazione, e non di questa o di quella; quando hai visto Eugenia, quell’astrazione ha trovato una forma concreta: la donna è diventata una donna e tu te ne sei innamorato, e adesso la vai cercando, senza mai lasciarla, in quasi tutte le donne, e ti innamori dell’insieme, del genere. Sei passato, insomma, dall’astratto al concreto, e dal concreto al generico, dalla donna a una donna, e da una donna alle donne».”

“Noi uomini siamo davvero uomini solo perché ci sono i cani, i gatti, i cavalli, i buoi, le pecore e tutti gli altri animali, soprattutto quelli domestici! Forse che l’uomo avrebbe conquistato la sua umanità se gli fossero mancati gli animali domestici su cui scaricare il peso della bestialità della vita? Se l’uomo non avesse addomesticato il cavallo, oggi la metà della nostra progenie sarebbe in groppa all’altra metà! Sì, è a voi che si deve la civilizzazione! E alle donne. E non sarà che anche la donna è un animale domestico? E se non ci fossero le donne, gli uomini sarebbero uomini lo stesso?”

“When you want to be a woman, follow my advice. Speak in a thin, pretty voice. It has to be high-pitched. Try pushing it up into your nose. Cover your mouth when you laugh. Press down firmly and neatly when writing. Grow your hair to your shoulders. Curls are discouraged. Flap your wrists often. Show enthusiasm about grocery shopping and cooking. Beef up your cooking skills. Be unfailingly kind to others—especially men. Use your charm to get out of danger. Fall in love with a man. Eat very little. Even if you really want to finish it, leave some on your plate. Make sure you attain a slim figure and maintain it for your whole life. Play dumb, with no regard for your actual intelligence. Disparage your driving. Be chatty. Try your best to sincerely enjoy cleaning and doing laundry. Think of weakness as a virtue, and let your strength rot away. Wear makeup even in your dreams. Wear bright clothing. Conceal your sexual appetite, and take it to your grave. Become shyness incarnate. . . . There’s a fuckton more where that all comes from. I just couldn’t write it all down. To act the part of a woman, you’ve got to memorize a hefty script.”