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

- Salman Rushdie

"Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things–childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves–that go on slipping, like sand, through our fingers."

- Salman Rushdie

"Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one."

- Salman Rushdie

"Writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things – childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves – that go on slipping, like sand, through our fingers."

- Salman Rushdie

"For an instant, silence, noisier than a waterfall."

- Salman Rushdie