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.
SALMAN RUSHDIEWhen a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced.
More Salman Rushdie Quotes
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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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Only the foolish, blinded by language’s conventions, think of fire as red or gold. Fire is blue at it’s melancholy rim, green in it’s envious heart. It may burn white, or even, in it’s greatest rages, black.
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The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.
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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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One of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions.
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We cannot allow religious hooligans to place limiting points on thought.
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How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.
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One of the strange things about violent and authoritarian regimes is they don’t like the glare of negative publicity.
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Religion is responsible for a lot of the problems in the history of the world and it’s not something that I practice or recommend, but to each his own.
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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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I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire.
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Faith without doubt is addiction.
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Too many people spouting too many words, and in the end those words will turn to bullets and stones.
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My horizon’s have shrunk and I have only endings to write.
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Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.
SALMAN RUSHDIE






