#at

I didn't want to become some embittered old hack getting his revenge for the rest of my life. And I didn't want to become some scared creature cowering in a corner. I remember telling myself not to carry the hatred around, although I know where it is. I have it in a trunk in storage. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#around #become #carry #corner #creature

Throughout human history, the apostles of purity, those who have claimed to possess a total explanation, have wrought havoc among mere mixed-up human beings. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#apostles #beings #claimed #explanation #havoc

The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#because #change #conservative #crimes #culture

Most of what matters in your life takes place in your absence. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#life #matters #most #place #takes

I'm no friend of Tony Blair's and I consider the Middle East policies of the United States and the UK fatal. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#consider #east #fatal #friend #i

I've never seen anywhere in the world as beautiful as Kashmir. It has something to do with the fact that the valley is very small and the mountains are very big, so you have this miniature countryside surrounded by the Himalayas, and it's just spectacular. And it's true, the people are very beautiful too. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#beautiful #big #countryside #fact #i

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#defense #freedom #frightens #manner #mechanisms

Such is the miraculous nature of the future of exiles: what is first uttered in the impotence of an overheated apartment becomes the fate of nations. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#becomes #exiles #fate #first #future

The only way to find out why someone decides to engage in armed combat is to look at their individual personality. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#combat #decides #engage #find #individual

The response of anybody interested in liberty is that we all have a say and the ability to have an argument is exactly what liberty is, even though it may never be resolved. In any authoritarian society the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside he will come after you. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#after #any #anybody #argument #authoritarian