Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.

I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: the mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself. --From the Introduction

Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.

All the stories are fictions. What matters is which fiction you believe.

Satanic Verses is a despicable book that could not have been written by a person who wished to behave decently and responsibly.

When I write fiction, I create characters whose views are not my own, and I allow them to be eloquent in defense of their, not my, views.

I'm not a liar, sir,' she said. "'No, I'm sure you sincerely become whatever it is you're pretending to be.