Salman Rushdie

One of the things I've thought about 'Midnight's Children' is that it is a novel which puts a Muslim family at the centre of the Indian experience.

People are always telling me that they've seen people reading my books on the subway, or the beach, or whenever.

Many men start being friendly with women because they are trying to seduce them. I'm not trying to seduce them. I just like hanging out with them.

Look at history. It's not the account of a species at peace.

It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions.

It may be that the books that were best liked in your lifetime are not the ones that are best liked 100 years later.

In this world without quiet corners, there can be no easy escapes from history, from hullabaloo, from terrible, unquiet fuss.

In television, the 60-minute series, 'The Wire' and 'Mad Men' and so on, the writer is the primary creative artist.

If Turkey wants to join Europe, it will have to become a European country, and that might take a long time.

If you have children you worry about the world you're leaving them.

In Iran, fundamentalism was fuelled to an extent by the regime of the Shah being supported by the West.

In general, writers shouldn't be killed for what they write, though I can think of exceptions.

If the creative artist worries if he will still be free tomorrow, then he will not be free today.

I'm not saying I am never going to fall in love again, but there is no need to marry.

I'm a world expert on superhero comics. I think maybe only Michael Chabon knows more than me.

I will come back to India - so deal with it.

I seem to have fallen for women with missing parents. Goodness knows what it signifies.

I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.

Free societies are societies in motion, and with motion comes friction.

Dissensions between Muslim nations run at least as deep, if not deeper, than those nations' resentment of the West.

Discovery is fun. I am incredibly open to everything.