We cannot allow religious hooligans to place limiting points on thought.

The publishing of a book is a worldwide event. The attempt to suppress a book is a worldwide event.

I'm no friend of Tony Blair's and I consider the Middle East policies of the United States and the UK fatal.

The only people who see the whole picture,' he murmured, 'are the ones who step out of the frame.

I don't feel American. I do feel like a New Yorker. I think there's a real distinction there. A city allows you to become a citizen even when you're not a national.

There's no point going to a country which is torturing people to ask them to stop if they can point out that the United States is doing it too. It enormously weakens the argument. Back in the early days of the Bush administration, PEN made a decision that we would try and make human rights issues and civil rights issues in this country part of the priority, and not just international issues, which had more or less been the priority up until then.

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