I think the business of writing a great deal of it is the business of paying attention to your characters, to the world they live in, to the story you have to tell, but just a kind of deep attention and out of that if you pay attention properly the story will tell you what it needs.

It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity.

Well, we're still in the middle of it. And it doesn't show any sign of going away. And these attacks that were - that seemed so odd at the time, with "Satanic Verses," because we didn't have any context for this. You know, where did that come from? It seemed to come out of nowhere.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

If you actually want to change your world, there is a better way of doing it than blowing yourself up.

After a long, hopeless war, people will settle for peace, at almost any price.

If Islam is to be reconciled with modernity, these voices must be encouraged until they swell into a roar.