I had a very difficult relationship with my father, which ended up okay, but there were many difficult years. Salman Rushdie More Quotes by Salman Rushdie More Quotes From Salman Rushdie It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it. Salman Rushdie offended-youeasybook I learned: the first lesson of my life: nobody can face the world with his eyes open all the time. Salman Rushdie lessonseyeworld Sometimes when you finish a book, you don't know quite what you've got. Salman Rushdie knowssometimesbook I hate admitting that my enemies have a point. Salman Rushdie admittinghateenemy Life is lived forward but is judged in reverse. Salman Rushdie judgedreverselife-is A book is a product of a pact with the Devil that inverts the Faustian contract, he'd told Allie. Dr Faustus sacrificed eternity in return for two dozen years of power; the writer agrees to the ruination of his life, and gains (but only if he's lucky) maybe not eternity, but posterity, at least. Either way (this was Jumpy's point) it's the Devil who wins. Salman Rushdie winningbookyears Human beings, you see, do absolutely two primary things. We see like and unlike. Like becomes, in literature, simile and metaphor. Unlike becomes uniqueness and difference, from which I believe, the novel is born. Salman Rushdie differencestwobelieve Happy endings must come at the end of something,' the Walrus pointed out. 'If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for awhile. Salman Rushdie cheerstoriesadventure Some people are paralyzed by the consciousness of death, other people live with it.... The fatwa certainly made me think about it a lot more than I ever had. I guess I know I'm going to die, but then, so are you. Salman Rushdie consciousnesspeoplethinking Our lives teach us who we are. Salman Rushdie who-we-arehuman-naturecharacter It's true that the human body is more vulnerable than the products of the human mind. We need to protect artists and journalists people to allow them to work. Salman Rushdie artistmindpeople I don't think there is a need for an entity like God in my life. Salman Rushdie atheismreligionthinking Nobody ever recognizes themselves unless they are not the character. There are many people who have claimed to be in my books, but unfortunately they were usually people that I didn't know. Salman Rushdie characterbookpeople What's real and what's true aren't necessarily the same. Salman Rushdie real Is birth always a fall? Salman Rushdie birthfall Sometimes you find your voice by trying to write like people, and sometimes you find it by trying to write unlike people. Salman Rushdie voicewritingpeople I do not need the idea of God to explain the world I live in. Salman Rushdie realityideasreligion Shame is like everything else; live with it for long enough and it becomes part of the furniture. Salman Rushdie furnitureshamelong 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'm gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Salman Rushdie destinygonelife What I found interesting writing a screenplay as opposed to writing a novel is not the obvious thing, which is having to pare everything down and find the kind of essence, the skeleton if you like, which can then be fleshed out by performance and cinematography. Salman Rushdie skeletonsessencewriting