A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, . . . not old tales but new ones. Nothing comes from nothing. Salman Rushdie More Quotes by Salman Rushdie More Quotes From Salman Rushdie A book is not completed till it's read. Salman Rushdie book One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable. Salman Rushdie unthinkable extraordinary-things events In the end, you write the book that grabs you by the throat and demands to be written. Salman Rushdie demand writing book I do think there was a period there when my sanity was under intense pressure, and I didn't know what to say or do or how to act. I was literally living from day to day. Salman Rushdie sanity pressure thinking I'm not saying I am never going to fall in love again, but there is no need to marry. Salman Rushdie love-again falling-in-love needs Realism can break a writer's heart. Salman Rushdie realism break heart The frustrating part of being tagged 'controversial' is people go looking for trouble where there isn't any to look for. Salman Rushdie trouble people looks Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin. Salman Rushdie effort safety trying Five mysteries hold the keys to the unseen: the act of love, and the birth of a baby, and the contemplation of great art, and being in the presence of death or disaster, and hearing the human voice lifted in song. Salman Rushdie song baby art Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’ve gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each "I", every one of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you’ll have to swallow the world. Salman Rushdie gone answers world Too many people had spent too long demonizing or totemizing me to listen seriously to what I had to say. Salman Rushdie long people You start at the stupid end of the book, and if you're lucky you finish at the smart end. Salman Rushdie smart stupid book Human beings understand themselves and shape their futures by arguing and challenging and questioning and saying the un-sayable, not by bowing the knee whether to gods or to men. Salman Rushdie shapes challenges men As human knowledge has grown, it has also become plain that every religious story ever told about how we got here is quite simply wrong. This, finally, is what all religions have in common. They didn't get it right. Salman Rushdie religious stories common There is no magic on earth strong enough to wipe out the legacies of one's parents. Salman Rushdie magic parent strong You want all your books to stick around after you've gone. Salman Rushdie gone want book The suicide bomber's imagination leads him to believe in a brilliant act of heroism, when in fact he is simply blowing himself up pointlessly and taking other people's lives. Salman Rushdie suicide believe people I've been worrying about God a little bit lately... It seems like he's been in a bad mood. And I think it has to do with the quality of lovers he's been getting. Salman Rushdie quality worry thinking Our human tragedy is that we are unable to comprehend our experience, it slips through our fingers, we can't hold on to it, and the more time passes, the harder it gets...My father said that the natural world gave us explanations to compensate for the meanings we could not grasp. The slant of the cold sunlight on a winter pine, the music of water, an oar cutting the lake and the flight of birds, the mountains' nobility , the silence of the silence. We are given life but must accept that it is unattainable and rejoice in what can be held in the eye, the memory, the mind. Salman Rushdie eye memories father In general, writers shouldn't be killed for what they write, though I can think of exceptions. Salman Rushdie exception writing thinking
