You can't have modern states based on ideas which have been out of date for a thousand years. Salman Rushdie More Quotes by Salman Rushdie More Quotes From Salman Rushdie One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable. Salman Rushdie unthinkableextraordinary-thingsevents In the end, you write the book that grabs you by the throat and demands to be written. Salman Rushdie demandwritingbook 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 sanitypressurethinking I'm not saying I am never going to fall in love again, but there is no need to marry. Salman Rushdie love-againfalling-in-loveneeds Realism can break a writer's heart. Salman Rushdie realismbreakheart The frustrating part of being tagged 'controversial' is people go looking for trouble where there isn't any to look for. Salman Rushdie troublepeoplelooks Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin. Salman Rushdie effortsafetytrying 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 songbabyart 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 goneanswersworld Too many people had spent too long demonizing or totemizing me to listen seriously to what I had to say. Salman Rushdie longpeople You start at the stupid end of the book, and if you're lucky you finish at the smart end. Salman Rushdie smartstupidbook 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 shapeschallengesmen 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 religiousstoriescommon There is no magic on earth strong enough to wipe out the legacies of one's parents. Salman Rushdie magicparentstrong You want all your books to stick around after you've gone. Salman Rushdie gonewantbook 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 suicidebelievepeople 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 qualityworrythinking 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 eyememoriesfather In general, writers shouldn't be killed for what they write, though I can think of exceptions. Salman Rushdie exceptionwritingthinking It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it. Salman Rushdie offended-youeasybook
