Best Rushdie Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Your potentials are called POTENTIALS because they are POTENT. Don't make them IMPOTENT by being IMPATIENT. Make an IMPACT".”

Source: The Great Hand Book of Quotes

“The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.”

Religion Criticism Sacred Ideology Satire Offended Idea Freedom Of Thought Rushdie

Author:Salman Rushdie

“When the Washington Post telephoned me at home on Valentine's Day 1989 to ask my opinion about the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwah, I felt at once that here was something that completely committed me. It was, if I can phrase it like this, a matter of everything I hated versus everything I loved. In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying, and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual, and the defense of free expression. Plus, of course, friendship—though I like to think that my reaction would have been the same if I hadn't known Salman at all. To re-state the premise of the argument again: the theocratic head of a foreign despotism offers money in his own name in order to suborn the murder of a civilian citizen of another country, for the offense of writing a work of fiction. No more root-and-branch challenge to the values of the Enlightenment (on the bicentennial of the fall of the Bastille) or to the First Amendment to the Constitution, could be imagined. President George H.W. Bush, when asked to comment, could only say grudgingly that, as far as he could see, no American interests were involved…”

Source: Hitch 22: A Memoir

“To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die.”

Rushdie Satanic Verses Opening Line Of The Novel

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Many Scandinavian writers who had made their name in literary fiction felt they wanted to have a go at the crime novel to show they could compete with the best. If Salman Rushdie had been Norwegian, he would definitely have written at least one thriller.”

Ifs Made Shows Wanted Names Felt Fiction Novel Written Crime Thrillers Norwegians Scandinavians Scandinavia Crime Novels Rushdie

Author:Jo Nesbo

“Rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author Salman Rushdie, I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing.”

Real Demonstration Real Things Having Hope Rushdie

Author:Cat Stevens

“In Islam there is a line between let's say freedom and the line which is then transgressed into immorality and irresponsibility and I think as far as this writer is concerned, unfortunately, he has been irresponsible with his freedom of speech. Salman Rushdie or indeed any writer who abuses the prophet, or indeed any prophet, under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. It's got to be seen as a deterrent, so that other people should not commit the same mistake again.”

“My father decided that he was such a admirer of Ibn Rushd's philosophy, thinking that he changed the family name to Rushdie. I realized why my father was so interested in him, because he was really an incredibly modernizing voice inside our Islamic culture.”

Thinking Philosophy Culture Father Names Voice Changed Decided I Realized Islamic Admirer Family Name Rushdie Islamic Culture

Author:Salman Rushdie

“It [defending Salmon Rushdie] was, if I can phrase it like this, a matter of everything I hated versus everything I loved. In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual and the defense of free expression.”

“I have much more power and protection than Salman Rushdie, because I'm an American citizen, but yes, I live in terrible fear for my life and for the lives of my children. My whole family has been threatened, my adoptive parents had to sell their house and move out of Washington, D.C. because of death threats caused by my work and activism.”

Children Has Beens Whole Moving House Parent Citizens Terrible Sells Threat Protection Activism My Children Threatened American Citizens Whole Family Rushdie Adoptive Parents

Author:Kola Boof

“I opposed the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I read the book and took a critical distance. I did not think The Satanic Verses is a blasphemous book. I did not consider the book as being a great read, but as an intellectual I read, I assess, and I respond. I make a difference between true freedom of expression to which we owe a response and provocation, which we ignore.”

Thinking Book Differences Expression Intellectual Distance Response Critical Making A Difference Verses Freedom Of Expression Satanic True Freedom Provocation Rushdie Satanic Verses

Author:Tariq Ramadan

“I also know Patrick White in Australia, both personally and as a writer, and Salman Rushdie in India.”

Knows White India Australia Rushdie

Author:William Golding

“It was a very funny conference. I knew [Christopher Hitchens] before that. He had always been a good angel to me. He once stole a phrase from me that came out of his mouth on television. I saw his eyes move sideways. I thought, It's alright, you can have it! The conference was light on women. Salman Rushdie showed up, they were doing their own thing. I didn't feel neglected!”

Feels Light Eye Moving Saws Television Mouths Angel Phrases His Eyes Conferences Neglected Alright Sideways Rushdie

Author:Hilary Mantel

“I am called an Islamic fundamentalist by Rushdie. My critics in Pakistan say I am a Zionist agent. I must be doing something right.”

Critics Agents Islamic Pakistan Fundamentalist Zionist Rushdie

Author:Imran Khan

“I do not read the works of Salman Rushdie, I write them. By the time I have finished writing them all I can think of is never reading them again. It's so deep, your involvement with a book, that once it's finished, then you are really done with it.”

Thinking Writing I Can Book Done Reading Finished Involvement Rushdie

Author:Salman Rushdie

“The one fatwa that everyone here is probably familiar with is the Salman Rushdie fatwa, but a fatwa doesn't have to be a violent thing at all. A fatwa is simply a ruling on Islamic law; there can be fatwas on clothing.”

Violent Familiar Islamic Rushdie

Author:Sadakat Kadri

“It's rare that you get to read, let alone teach, an arbitrary canon of your choosing in a tight time setting, and I tore through a fairly wide range of Indian writers, some contemporary - like Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie - and others older, like R.K. Narayan. And I think what happened at that stage was that I was forced to take a position in my own writing style that was more fixed, as opposed to reading a book at a time and defining myself in opposition to or in awe of it.”

Thinking Writing Book Reading Teach Style Awe Writing Style Rushdie

Author:Karan Mahajan

“Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.”

Writing Book Creation Conscious Rational Rushdie

Book:In good faith

Source: In good faith

“One of the reasons my name is Rushdie is that my father was an admirer of Ibn Rush'd, the 12th century Arab philosopher known as Averroes in the West. In his time, he was making the non-literalist case for interpreting the Koran.”

Reason Father Names Known Cases Century West Philosopher Interpreting Admirer Rushdie

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death.”

Law Abuse Sentences Prophet Islamic Rushdie Islamic Law

Author:Cat Stevens

“So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name. The problem’s name is God.”

World Problem Turns Names Happened India Rushdie

Author:Salman Rushdie

“She's no flibberti-gibberti mamzell, but a whir-stir-get-lost-sir bundla dynamite!”

Lost Dynamite Rushdie

Book:The Satanic Verses

Source: The Satanic Verses

“Rushdie is a hostage.”

Hostage Rushdie

Author:Don DeLillo

“I have for a long time loved fabulist, imaginative fiction, such as the writing of Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Michael Bulgakov, and Salman Rushdie. I also like the magic realist writers, such as Borges and Marquez, and feel that interesting truths can be learned about our world by exploring highly distorted worlds.”

World Feels Writing Long Interesting Fiction Magic Long Time Our World Exploring Imaginative Realist Time Love Borges Rushdie Marquez

Author:Alan Lightman