Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.
Salman RushdieHe had picked up languages the way most sailors pick up diseases; languages were his gonorrhoea, his syphilis, his scurvy, his ague, his plague.
Salman RushdieOnce you have been in an earthquake you know, even if you survive without a scratch, that like a stroke in the heart, it remains in the earth's breast, horribly potential, always promising to return, to hit you again, with an even more devastating force.
Salman RushdieโRespect for religionโ has become a code phrase meaning โfear of religion.โ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.
Salman Rushdie