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

"The human brain is a wonderful thing. It starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public."

"The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas—uncertainty, progress, change—into crimes."

"I'm a writer, not a politician. My job is to ask questions, not to provide answers."

"The greatest danger to freedom is the abandonment of reason."

"I have always believed that stories are how we make sense of the world, and how we change the world."