Salman Rushdie Quotes About Literature

Quotes about: Literature

• Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.

  Salman Rushdie

  Heart, Imagination, Literature

  The Hindu, February 26, 1995.

• 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 Rushdie

  Talking, Voice, Literature

  "Is Nothing Sacred?" (1990)

• Not even the visionary or mystical experience ever lasts very long. It is for art to capture that experience, to offer it to, in the case of literature, its readers; to be, for a secular, materialist culture, some sort of replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.

  Salman Rushdie

  Love, Art, Mystical Experiences

  Salman Rushdie (1990). “Is nothing sacred?”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

• The only privilege literature deserves - and this privilege it requires in order to exist - is the privilege of being in the arena of discourse, the place where the struggle of our languages can be acted out.

  Salman Rushdie

  Struggle, Order, Literature

• The liveliness of literature lies in its exceptionality, in being the individual, idiosyncratic vision of one human being, in which, to our delight and great surprise, we may find our own vision reflected.

  Salman Rushdie

  Lying, Vision, Delight

  Salman Rushdie (1990). “In good faith”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

• As I look back, I feel a touch of pride at my younger self's dedication to literature, which gave him the strength of mind to resist the blandishments of the enemies of promise. The sirens of ad-land sang sweetly and seductively, but I thought of Odysseus lashing himself to the mast of his ship, and somehow stayed on course.

  Salman Rushdie

  Pride, Dedication, Land

• Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everythingin every possible way. The reason for ensuring that that privileged arena is preserved is not that writers want the absolute freedom to say and do whatever they please. It is that we, all of us, readers and writers and citizens and generals and goodmen, need that little, unimportant-looking room. We do not need to call it sacred, but we do need to remember that it is necessary.

  Salman Rushdie

  Voice, Talking, Want

  "Is Nothing Sacred?" (1990)

• Ideas are interesting to me, and religions are a place where ideas have been very subtly embodied for thousands of years. All literature started as sacred literature.

  Salman Rushdie

  Ideas, Years, Interesting

• American literature has always been immigrant.

  Salman Rushdie

  Literature, American Literature, Immigrants

  "Salman Rushdie: the fatwa, Islamic fundamentalism and Joseph Anton". Interview with Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. September 16, 2012.

• I believe in the art of literature, I believe in freedom of the imagination, I believe in the kind of liberties that we enjoy in these lucky countries of the world.

  Salman Rushdie

  Country, Art, Believe

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

• It is literature which for me opened the mysterious and decisive doors of imagination and understanding. To see the way others see. To think the way others think. And above all, to feel.

  Salman Rushdie

  Thinking, Doors, Imagination

• For me, what I've always seen in writers and artists is the courage it takes to make an original work of art. I think the real risks in literature are linguistic and intellectual, and I hope we can highlight those, as well as political courage.

  Salman Rushdie

  Art, Real, Thinking

  Source: pen.org

• Human beings, you see, do absolutely two primary things. We see like and unlike. Like becomes, in literature, simile and metaphor. Unlike becomes uniqueness and difference, from which I believe, the novel is born.

  Salman Rushdie

  Believe, Two, Differences

• I'm a reader of Chinese literature, I like their films, but also: I've had great difficulty getting my work published in China; very little of it has been published there. The first two attempts to have all of my work published, for instance, were refused without any reason ever being given.

  Salman Rushdie

  Two, Chinese, Literature

• The gamble of literature is that I make the best work I can; the most truthful, the most representative of how I see things. I try and do that and then I put it out there and say to you, "What do you think?" I hope that you think well of it, obviously.

  Salman Rushdie

  Thinking, Trying, Literature

  "I'm returning to India, deal with it - Salman Rushdie to NDTV". Interview with Barkha Dutt, www.ndtv.com. January 25, 2012.

• We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love.

  Salman Rushdie

  Fashion, Cutting, Kissing

  "Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002". Book by Salman Rushdie, 2003.

• The thing about literature is that, yes, there are kind of tides of fashion, you know; people come in and out of fashion; writers who are very celebrated fall into, you know, people you know stop reading them, and then it comes back again.

  Salman Rushdie

  Fashion, Fall, Reading

• What I've always seen in writers and artists is the courage it takes to make an original work of art. I think the real risks in literature are linguistic and intellectual, and I hope we can highlight those, as well as political courage.

  Salman Rushdie

  Art, Real, Thinking

  Source: lareviewofbooks.org

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin