No, I don't think it's fair to label Islam 'violent.' But I will say that to my knowledge, no writer has ever gone into hiding for criticizing the Amish.

Salman Rushdie

Categorized in : Thinking Labels Islam

I am gagged and imprisoned. I can't even speak. I want to kick a football in a park with my son. Ordinary, banal life: my impossible dream.

dream football son

Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad th... by Salman Rushdie

Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.

killing people ideas

Very often in free speech cases you find yourself defending material that you personally detest, because of course it's no trick to defend the free speech of people you either agree with or who don't particularly upset you. It's when people really upset you that you discover if you believe in free speech or not.

upset believe people

If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is based, and without which their countries' freedom will remain a distant dream.

islam dream country

I became a writer because I got addicted to story. The first stor... by Salman Rushdie

I became a writer because I got addicted to story. The first storyteller in my life was my father.

stories father firsts

In the experience of art, time seems not to exist. When I'm writing and think, "I've been working for two hours," I've actually been working for seven.

writing art thinking

It is literature which for me opened the mysterious and decisive doors of imagination and understanding. To see the way others see. To think the way others think. And above all, to feel.

imagination doors thinking

For a fellow who's not to much to look at, you have the instincts... by Salman Rushdie

For a fellow who's not to much to look at, you have the instincts of a champion.

champion instinct looks

I thought, you know, I would probably not have seen that. On the other hand, he's obviously completely telling the truth. So, then what is that? That's - I wanted to explore that. And then I wanted to talk about how ideas are born. And the big question that the book asks in a number of ways about a number of things is that. How does a new idea come into the world?

numbers book ideas

There is no alternative to the peaceful coexistence of cultures. by Salman Rushdie

There is no alternative to the peaceful coexistence of cultures.

peaceful alternatives culture

Reading is a very different thing than performing. In fact, one of the things I think that doesn't work in books on tape is if the person doing the reading "acts" too much; it becomes irritating to you listening to it.

reading book thinking

I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity. by Salman Rushdie

I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity.

absurdity all-things

You can't assume if you do something contentious that people will be on your side. The moment violence enters the story, the story changes. Then the question is, "How do you face up to violence?" And then you have to have a no-compromise position. And this is quite simply a lesson we learn in the school playground.

your-side people school

I'm definitely post-something. by Salman Rushdie

I'm definitely post-something.

posts

Many men start being friendly with women because they are trying to seduce them. I'm not trying to seduce them. I just like hanging out with them.

friendly trying men

So when I studied history at Cambridge, I did a special subject in that, exactly that. And then actually that - while I was studying it was where I came across the so-called incident of the satanic verses.

satanic study special

I want more than what I want. (Vina Apsara) by Salman Rushdie

I want more than what I want. (Vina Apsara)

want

I have no problem with people's religious beliefs. I just don't h... by Salman Rushdie

I have no problem with people's religious beliefs. I just don't happen to have any.

belief religious people

Question: What is the opposite of faith? Not disbelief. Too final, certain, closed. Itself is a kind of belief. Doubt.

finals doubt opposites

In a novel, if you're any good, you don't just have good people or bad people. You have complicated people. You have real people.

real complicated people