Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain.

'The Satanic Verses' was denied the ordinary life of a novel. It became something smaller and uglier: an insult.

There is no alternative to the peaceful coexistence of cultures.

In writing 'The Satanic Verses,' I think I was writing for the first time from the whole of myself. The English part, the Indian part. The part of me that loves London, and the part that longs for Bombay. And at my typewriter, alone, I could indulge this.

When you know what you're against you have taken the first step to discovering what you're for.

Matthew Wiener on Mad Men writes the entire series before they start shooting, and if you have that, then what you can do with character and story is not at all unlike what you can do in a novel.

All art began as sacred art, you know? I mean, all painting began as religious painting. All writing began as religious writing.