Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.

It matters, it always matters, to name rubbish as rubbish; that to do otherwise is to legitimize it.

I don't think I've ever quite grown out of it, actually. There was a point where I could recite some of those Elvish verses - which I've mercifully forgotten. But I can still, if really pushed, recite the text of the inside of the ruling ring in the language of Mordor.

I'm a novelist. Fortunately I don't have to rule the world.

I did a lot of student acting when I was young.

If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is based, and without which their countries' freedom will remain a distant dream.

My father decided that he was such a admirer of Ibn Rushd's philosophy, thinking that he changed the family name to Rushdie. I realized why my father was so interested in him, because he was really an incredibly modernizing voice inside our Islamic culture.