From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.
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
-
-
He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
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.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
For every snake, there is a ladder; for every ladder, a snake.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
What I do think is evident is that those countries in the world where Islamic extremism has recovered the most power, those are also the countries which are most disliked.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
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 -
If you actually want to change your world, there is a better way of doing it than blowing yourself up.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
Liberate yourself, because no one else is going to liberate you.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
We all owe death a life.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
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.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
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.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
My horizon’s have shrunk and I have only endings to write.
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.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
People can do bad things with free speech as well as good. You have to defend the Ku Klux Klan as well as Martin Luther King. It’s like that. If you’re going to defend the principle, then you have to defend people who use the principle badly.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
You can’t have modern states based on ideas which have been out of date for a thousand years.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
Even when things are at their worst, there’s a little voice in your head saying, ‘Good story!’
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
Perhaps the story you finish is never the one you begin.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
Something was badly amiss with the spiritual life of the planet, Too many demons inside people claiming to believe in God.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
Where there is no belief, there is no blasphemy.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
I write books I’d enjoy reading, I’m the reader standing behind my shoulder.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
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.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity.
SALMAN RUSHDIE -
I didn’t become a writer to write about me.
SALMAN RUSHDIE