Salman Rushdie

“The problem of telling contemporary history is that your message gets outdated.”

“The whole story of migration and what that has done in interconnecting the planet is obviously something I've written about a lot.”

“Chekhov is this poet of melancholy and isolation and of wishing you were somewhere else than where you are.”

“British society has never been cleansed of the filth of imperialism.”

“Pakistan is alarmed by the rising Indian influence in Afghanistan, and fears that an Afghanistan cleansed of the Taliban would be an Indian client state, thus sandwiching Pakistan between two hostile countries. The paranoia of Pakistan about India's supposed dark machinations should never be underes...”

“Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.”