How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.
SALMAN RUSHDIEOne of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions.
More Salman Rushdie Quotes
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Even when things are at their worst, there’s a little voice in your head saying, ‘Good story!’
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We were language’s magpies by nature, stealing whatever sounded bright and shiny.
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He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.
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Of course, there is nothing intrinsic linking any religion with any act of violence. The crusades don’t prove that Christianity was violent. The Inquisition doesn’t prove that Christianity tortures people. But that Christianity did torture people.
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Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.
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Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.
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You can’t have modern states based on ideas which have been out of date for a thousand years.
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Ignorantly is how we all fall in love; for it is a kind of fall. Closing our eyes, we leap from that cliff in hope of a soft landing. Nor is it always soft; but still, without that leap nobody comes to life.
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I don’t dictate to anyone what to believe and what not to. And I don’t want that to be dictated to me either.
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We have come to think of taking offence as a fundamental right. We value very little more highly than our rage, which gives us, in our opinion, the moral high ground. From there we can shoot down at our enemies and inflict heavy fatalities.
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No, I don’t think it’s fair to label Islam ‘violent.’ But I will say that to my knowledge, no writer has ever gone into hiding for criticizing the Amish.
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Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull.
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I didn’t become a writer to write about me.
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It matters, it always matters, to name rubbish as rubbish; that to do otherwise is to legitimize it.
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Stories in families are colossally important. Every family has stories: some funny, some proud, some embarrassing, some shameful. Knowing them is proof of belonging to the family.
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