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Salman Rushdie

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If you look at Indian movies, every time they wanted an exotic locale, they would have a dance number in Kashmir. Kashmir was India's fairyland. Indians went there because in a hot country you go to a cold place. People would be entranced by the sight of snow.
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If I were asked for a one-sentence sound
bite on religion, I would say I was against it.
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When...did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent.
From Joseph Anton: A Memoir
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...this is our tragedy, she said in his words, our fictions are killing us, but if we didn’t have those fictions, maybe that would kill us too.
From Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
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As a writer, one of the things we all learned from the movies was a kind of compression that didn't exist before people were used to watching films. For instance, if you wanted to write a flashback in a novel, you once had to really contextualize it a lot, to set it up. Now, readers know exactly what you're doing. Close-ups, too.
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From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.
From The Satanic Verses
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Most of what matters in our lives takes place in our absence.
From Midnight’s Children
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He did not wish to be divine. If there had never been a God, the emperor thought, it might have been easier to work out what goodness was. This business of worship, of the abnegation of self in the face of the Almighty, was a distraction, a false trail. Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow, clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path.
From The Enchantress of Florence
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All true believers have good reasons for disbelieving in every god except their own,' said Birbal, 'and so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.
From The Enchantress of Florence
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He knew that his father had finally run hard enough and long enough to wear down the frontiers between the worlds, he had run clear out of his skin and into the arms of his wife, to whom he had proved, once and for all, the superiority of his love. Some migrants are happy to depart.
From The Satanic Verses
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So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name.

The problem’s name is God.
From The Satanic Verses
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Mahound comes to me for revelation, asking me to choose between monotheist and henotheist alternatives, and I'm just some idiot actor having a bhaenchud nightmare, what the fuck do I know, yaar, what to tell you, help. Help.
From The Satanic Verses
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The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, 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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If Allah wishes me to die, I shall die, if he does not, I shall not. Then what use is the safety?” “Damn you, India
From The Satanic Verses
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What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
From Fury
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We have suffered from a kind of disease: one of detachment, of being unable to connect ourselves to things, events, feelings. Most people define themselves by their work, or where they come from, or suchlike; we have lived too far inside our heads. It makes actuality damn hard to handle.
From The Satanic Verses
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Nobody ever wanted to go to war, but if a war came your way, it might as well be the right war, about the most important things in the world, and you might as well, if you were going to fight it, be called "Rushdie," and stand where your father had placed you, in the tradition of the grand Aristotelian, Averroës, Abul Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd.
From Joseph Anton: A Memoir
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To understand just one life you have to swallow the world ... do you wonder, then, that I was a heavy child?
From Midnight’s Children
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‎No people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time.
From Midnight’s Children
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If you look at Indian movies, every time they wanted an exotic locale, they would have a dance number in Kashmir. Kashmir was India's fairyland. Indians went there because in a hot country you go to a cold place. People would be entranced by the sight of snow.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If I were asked for a one-sentence sound
bite on religion, I would say I was against it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When...did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent.
From Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
...this is our tragedy, she said in his words, our fictions are killing us, but if we didn’t have those fictions, maybe that would kill us too.
From Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
As a writer, one of the things we all learned from the movies was a kind of compression that didn't exist before people were used to watching films. For instance, if you wanted to write a flashback in a novel, you once had to really contextualize it a lot, to set it up. Now, readers know exactly what you're doing. Close-ups, too.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Most of what matters in our lives takes place in our absence.
From Midnight’s Children
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He did not wish to be divine. If there had never been a God, the emperor thought, it might have been easier to work out what goodness was. This business of worship, of the abnegation of self in the face of the Almighty, was a distraction, a false trail. Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow, clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path.
From The Enchantress of Florence
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
All true believers have good reasons for disbelieving in every god except their own,' said Birbal, 'and so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.
From The Enchantress of Florence
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He knew that his father had finally run hard enough and long enough to wear down the frontiers between the worlds, he had run clear out of his skin and into the arms of his wife, to whom he had proved, once and for all, the superiority of his love. Some migrants are happy to depart.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name.

The problem’s name is God.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mahound comes to me for revelation, asking me to choose between monotheist and henotheist alternatives, and I'm just some idiot actor having a bhaenchud nightmare, what the fuck do I know, yaar, what to tell you, help. Help.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If Allah wishes me to die, I shall die, if he does not, I shall not. Then what use is the safety?” “Damn you, India
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
From Fury
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We have suffered from a kind of disease: one of detachment, of being unable to connect ourselves to things, events, feelings. Most people define themselves by their work, or where they come from, or suchlike; we have lived too far inside our heads. It makes actuality damn hard to handle.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Nobody ever wanted to go to war, but if a war came your way, it might as well be the right war, about the most important things in the world, and you might as well, if you were going to fight it, be called "Rushdie," and stand where your father had placed you, in the tradition of the grand Aristotelian, Averroës, Abul Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd.
From Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To understand just one life you have to swallow the world ... do you wonder, then, that I was a heavy child?
From Midnight’s Children
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
‎No people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time.
From Midnight’s Children
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you look at Indian movies, every time they wanted an exotic locale, they would have a dance number in Kashmir. Kashmir was India's fairyland. Indians went there because in a hot country you go to a cold place. People would be entranced by the sight of snow.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If I were asked for a one-sentence sound
bite on religion, I would say I was against it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When...did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent.
From Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
...this is our tragedy, she said in his words, our fictions are killing us, but if we didn’t have those fictions, maybe that would kill us too.
From Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
As a writer, one of the things we all learned from the movies was a kind of compression that didn't exist before people were used to watching films. For instance, if you wanted to write a flashback in a novel, you once had to really contextualize it a lot, to set it up. Now, readers know exactly what you're doing. Close-ups, too.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Most of what matters in our lives takes place in our absence.
From Midnight’s Children
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He did not wish to be divine. If there had never been a God, the emperor thought, it might have been easier to work out what goodness was. This business of worship, of the abnegation of self in the face of the Almighty, was a distraction, a false trail. Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow, clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path.
From The Enchantress of Florence
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
All true believers have good reasons for disbelieving in every god except their own,' said Birbal, 'and so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.
From The Enchantress of Florence
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He knew that his father had finally run hard enough and long enough to wear down the frontiers between the worlds, he had run clear out of his skin and into the arms of his wife, to whom he had proved, once and for all, the superiority of his love. Some migrants are happy to depart.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name.

The problem’s name is God.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mahound comes to me for revelation, asking me to choose between monotheist and henotheist alternatives, and I'm just some idiot actor having a bhaenchud nightmare, what the fuck do I know, yaar, what to tell you, help. Help.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If Allah wishes me to die, I shall die, if he does not, I shall not. Then what use is the safety?” “Damn you, India
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
From Fury
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We have suffered from a kind of disease: one of detachment, of being unable to connect ourselves to things, events, feelings. Most people define themselves by their work, or where they come from, or suchlike; we have lived too far inside our heads. It makes actuality damn hard to handle.
From The Satanic Verses
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Nobody ever wanted to go to war, but if a war came your way, it might as well be the right war, about the most important things in the world, and you might as well, if you were going to fight it, be called "Rushdie," and stand where your father had placed you, in the tradition of the grand Aristotelian, Averroës, Abul Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd.
From Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To understand just one life you have to swallow the world ... do you wonder, then, that I was a heavy child?
From Midnight’s Children
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
‎No people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time.
From Midnight’s Children
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote