And so artists who go to that edge and push outwards often find very powerful forces pushing back. They find the forces of silence opposing the forces of speech. The forces of censorship against the forces of utterance, at that boundary is that push-and-pull between more and less. And that push and pull can be very dangerous to the artist. And many artists have suffered terribly for that.

Salman Rushdie

Categorized in : U.S.

It is often said by religious people that without its framework, there is no sense of right or wrong. My view is that religion comes after ethics.

Salman Rushdie

religious views people

I've never rejected the world I came from. To be rejected by it is horrible.

Salman Rushdie

horrible rejected world

She's no flibberti-gibberti mamzell, but a whir-stir-get-lost-sir bundla dynamite!

Salman Rushdie

rushdie dynamite lost

It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions.

Salman Rushdie

freedom-of-speech constitution religious

India is my kid sister.

Salman Rushdie

india kids

We all owe death a life.

Salman Rushdie

My children are English, and both of their mothers were English.

Salman Rushdie

my-children mother children

A man who catches History's eye is thereafter bound to a mistress from whom he will never escape.

Salman Rushdie

mistress eye men

Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.

Salman Rushdie

reading book

There are things you break that can't be put back together again. And Kashmir may be one of them.

Salman Rushdie

together-again kashmir may

There are two things in Indian history - one is the incredible optimism and potential of the place, and the other is the betrayal of that potential - for example, corruption. Those two strands intertwine through the whole of Indian history, and maybe not just Indian history.

Salman Rushdie

betrayal optimism two

Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.

Salman Rushdie

next feelings book

After a long, hopeless war, people will settle for peace, at almost any price.

Salman Rushdie

war long people

One of the strange things about violent and authoritarian regimes is they don't like the glare of negative publicity. If you can make them sufficiently uncomfortable, they frequently respond by doing what you need them to do in the spirit of setting people free or ceasing arrests, which has worked time and time again with PEN.

Salman Rushdie

spirit people negative

I didn't become a writer to write about me.

Salman Rushdie

writing

I do think that there is such a thing as human nature, and that the things that we have in common are perhaps greater than the things that divide us.

Salman Rushdie

human-nature common thinking

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry.

Salman Rushdie

imagination art firsts

My horizon's have shrunk and I have only endings to write.

Salman Rushdie

horizon writing

I have always thought, the secret purpose of the book tour is to make the writer hate the book he's written. And, as a result, drive him to write another book.

Salman Rushdie

hate writing book

Like everybody else, I've had relationships in which I was passionately in love but was completely miserable all the time and didn't trust the person I was in love with one inch.

Salman Rushdie

inches miserable persons