Prophet Mohammed would have no objection to The Satanic Verses.

Prophet Mohammed would have no objection to The Satanic Verses.

When I'm writing a book, sentence by sentence, I'm not thinking theoretically. I'm just trying to work out the story from inside the characters I've got.

When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy.

If the culture shifts, if people think differently about women, the art will shift, too. You can't ask art to make social change. It's not what it's for.

I think that a lot of us, whether we are religious or not - there are no words to express some things except religious words. For instance, 'soul.'

When you write, you write out of your best self. Everything else drops away.