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Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.
Salman Rushdie
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote expresses the bittersweet feeling of finishing a book and the anticipation of the next one.

Salman Rushdie captures the emotional experience of readers when they complete a book, reflecting on the emptiness that follows as they momentarily believe there won't be another story to enjoy. However, he reassures us that the joy of discovering new books always emerges, highlighting the continual cycle of reading and the abundance of stories that await us.

Themes

BooksReadingAnticipationStoriesLiterature

In practice

Example use cases

In a book club meeting discussing the latest read.

More from Salman Rushdie

I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
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Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
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faith without doubt is addiction
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I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
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In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
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Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
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