Quotes from Salman Rushdie

Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed.

we live in an age in which we are urged to define ourselves more and more narrowly, to crush our own multidimensionality into the straitjacket of a one-dimensional national, ethnic, tribal, or religious identity. This, I have come to think, may be the evil from which flow all the other evils of our time.

I never asked him if he screamed, or if there were upside-down mountain peaks visible through a window.

and as he aged and the world became less real he began to doubt his own beliefs, so that by the time he saw the God in whom he had never been able to believe or disbelieve he was probably expecting to do so.

India, the new myth – a collective fiction in which anything was possible, a fable rivalled only by the two other mighty fantasies: money and God.

Because concealment has always been an architectural consideration in India, Aziz's house has extensive underground chambers, which can only be reached through trap-doors in the floors, which are covered by carpets and mats.

the fading clothes in the old almirahs were distributed amongst the sweeper-women and other servants on the Estate, so that for years afterwards the heirs of William Methwold were cared for by men and women wearing the increasingly ragged shirts and cotton print dresses of their erstwhile masters.

These days the only way to experience joy was through chemistry. It was necessary first to unplug from the Connectivity and then, as the world faded away, to put euphoria into your mouth and suck on it. This was the lover who never disappointed you, the friend who never failed you, the partner who never cheated on you, the government that never lied. This alone was dependable, loyal, honest, and true. Sleepy, relaxed joy. Here it came. Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.

I have lived twice as long as I should have," the oldest one said, his voice crackling like an old radio because decades were rubbing up against each other around his vocal chords, "and I've never seen so many people so cheerful in such a bad time. It is the Devil's work.

No dominion is everlasting.

Cities change.

here is so particular wisdom in the East, all human beings are foolish to the same degree.

Eventually, the photographer had tried to catch her unawares, but she seized his camera and broke it over his skull. Fortunately, he lived; but there are no photographs of my grandmother anywhere on the earth. She was not one to be trapped in anyone's little black box. It was enough for her that she must live in unveiled, barefaced shamelessness—there was no question of allowing the fact to be recorded.

You see, captain,  here is the truth of the business: some persons are better, others are less.  But it may be nice for you to think otherwise.

He was teaching them to hate, wife. He tells them to hate Hindus and Buddhists and Jains and Sikhs and who knows what other vegetarians. Will you have hateful children, woman?

During, he looked away from all the strain, all the scratchiness, all the fights that never got going, he closed his eyes and waited until her smile came back. He allowed himself to believe in that smile, that brilliant counterfeit of joy

Fundamentalists of both religions had instantly sought injunctions banning the film from being shown

because a nation which had never previously existed was about to win its freedom, catapulting us into a world which, although it had five thousand years of history, although it had invented the game of chess and traded with Middle Kingdom Egypt, was nevertheless quite imaginary;

To know one man's story you have to swallow the world.

when he took his stand on the draft, refusing to go to 'Nam, sacrificing his title, risking jail, putting it all on the line for a principle, he became, well, awesome. In those days the word still meant what it was supposed to mean, "inspiring great admiration/awe," and Ali did that.

The heart flutters. Life damages the living. None of us are ourselves.

Somos criaturas del aire, / con raíces en los sueños / y las nubes renacidas / en el vuelo.

Love is spring after winter. It comes to heal life's wounds, inflicted by the unloving cold.

It was always women who did the choosing, and men's place was to be grateful if they were lucky enough to be the chosen ones.