“We have the freedoms we fight for, and we lose those we don’t defend.” — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
The only way of living in a free society is to feel that you have the right to say and do stuff. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
If there is a choice between absolute safety and freedom, then freedom must always prevail. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“Many of us persons of the tinted persuasion care about human rights and artistic freedom too.” — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“... free speech isn't absolute. We have the freedoms we fight for and we lose those we don't defend.” — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
I believe in the art of literature, I believe in freedom of the imagination, I believe in the kind of liberties that… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Two things form the bedrock of any open society - freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don't have those… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
But I - and I just think it's very - one of the problems of defending the extraordinary principle of freedom of… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. Without the freedom to challenge, even to satirize… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“Midnight has many children; the offspring of Independence were not all human. Violence, corruption, poverty, generals, chaos, greed and pepperpot… I had… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“the posture than the results. This language thing is part of that. Excuse me: if you clean up the language too much… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Both John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela use the same three-word phrase which in my mind says it all, which is ‘Freedom… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
If you live in free countries, you don't have to spend all your life arguing about freedom because it is all around… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“I want to suggest to you that citizens of free societies, democracies, do not preserve their freedom by pussyfooting around their fellow-citizen's… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“He was learning that to win a fight like this, it was not enough to know what one was fighting against. That… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“When you're whirling free of the mother ship, when you cut your ropes, slip your chain, step off the map, go absent… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“Live on, survive, for the earth gives forth wonders. It may swallow your heart, but the wonders keep on coming. You stand… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
In Europe, the Enlightenment of the 18th century was seen as a battle against the desire of the Church to limit intellectual… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list,… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Free societies...are societies in motion, and with motion comes tension, dissent, friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
The novel does not seek to establish a privileged language but it insists upon the freedom to portray and analyze the struggle… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
The response of anybody interested in liberty is that we all have a say and the ability to have an argument is… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
“All liberty required was that the space for discourse itself be protected. Liberty lay in the argument itself, not the resolution of… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
In the end, the thing that's important about free expression is that it's the right from which all other rights are derived.… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
If my child had prejudice in his head, I'd be ashamed. I would see it as my failure as a parent. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
Sometimes by a woodland stream he watched the water rush over the pebbled bed, its tiny modulations of bounce and flow. A woman's body… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
I want to write novels. I want to write stories. I want to do the stuff that I became a writer to do. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
If you want to be a serious writer, then you have to write what there is to write about. If you're going to pull… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
“Después de exigir mi marcha, ya no posees jurisdicción en lo concerniente a mi salud.” — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
If there is a choice between absolute safety and freedom, then freedom must always prevail. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
I'm not a prophet, but I always thought it was natural for dictatorships to fall. I remember in 1989, two months before the fall… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
I'd wanted to create a storm so that I could become more famous and richer. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done,… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
“information, in a stream-of-consciousness soliloquy that revealed the extent to which he had internalised the adversarial fragmentation of American culture and made it a… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, . . . not old tales but new ones.… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
The First Amendment defends all forms of speech including hate speech, which is why groups like Ku Klux Klan are allowed to utter their… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share
