Portrait of Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

Satanic Verses, magical realism

Contemporary influential 94 sayings

Sayings by Salman Rushdie

Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.

2006 — Essay, 'The Novel in the World'
War & Violence Unverifiable

We are living in an age when the word ‘blasphemy’ has become a weapon.

2012 — Interview with BBC News
War & Violence Unverifiable

The biggest problem with censorship is that it creates a climate of fear, and that climate of fear is very bad for creativity.

2013 — Interview with The Sydney Morning Herald
Political Unverifiable

The idea of the sacred is one of the most dangerous ideas in human history.

2012 — Interview with The New York Review of Books
General Unverifiable

To attack a book is to attack the human mind.

2012 — Speech at the PEN World Voices Festival
General Unverifiable

The only way to defeat the forces of unreason is with the weapons of reason.

2006 — Interview with The Guardian
War & Violence Unverifiable

I’ve learned that the only way to get through life is to laugh at it.

2010 — Interview with The Believer
General Unverifiable

The greatest danger to freedom is the abandonment of reason.

2012 — Speech at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
General Unverifiable

The job of the artist is to make trouble.

2012 — Interview with The New Yorker
General Unverifiable

The world is a cacophony of voices, and it's the writer's job to make sense of it.

2015 — Interview with The Wall Street Journal
General Unverifiable

I think that the most important thing a writer can do is to be honest.

2015 — Interview with NPR
General Unverifiable

The human mind is a dangerous place, and that's why we need art.

2015 — Speech at the Brooklyn Book Festival
General Unverifiable

Literature is not a luxury; it is a necessity.

2012 — Speech at the PEN World Voices Festival
General Unverifiable

The only way to fight darkness is with light.

2012 — Interview with The Atlantic
General Unverifiable

To be a writer is to be a messenger from the subconscious.

2017 — Interview with The Guardian
General Unverifiable

The world is a novel, and we are all characters in it.

1988 — Novel, The Satanic Verses
General Unverifiable

I'm interested in the idea of what happens when you cross boundaries, when you break rules.

2019 — Interview with The New York Times
General Unverifiable

The act of writing is an act of faith.

2019 — Speech at the Chicago Humanities Festival
Religious Unverifiable

The world is becoming more and more polarized, and it's important for writers to speak truth to power.

2019 — Interview with The Irish Times
General Unverifiable

I think that literature is a way of understanding the world, and understanding ourselves.

2020 — Interview with The Times of India
General Unverifiable
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