Share this page: Most of what happens in your life takes place in your absence. -- Midnight's Children (1981), 'Alpha and Omega', bk. 2 We who have grown up on a diet of honour and shame can still grasp what must seem unthinkable to people living in the aftermath of the death of God and of tragedy: that men will sacrifice their dearest love on the implacable altars of their pride. -- Shame (1983), pt. 3, ch. 7 A poet's work... To name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it from going to sleep. -- The Satanic Verses (1988), ch. 2 To burn a book is not to destroy it. One minute of darkness will not make us blind. -- Book review in Weekend Guardian (London), 14-15 October 1989 No story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old -- it is the new combinations that make them new. -- Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. -- In Weekend Guardian (London), 10 February 1990 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. -- Imaginary Homelands (1991), pt.12, ch. 5 One of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions. -- Quoted in: Independent on Sunday (London), 10 September 1995, 'Quotes of the Week' Books have to teach their readers how to read them. -- The Observer Review, 16 April 1995 It means everything -- it means freedom. -- Responding to news that the fatwa had been lifted. In: Mail on Sunday (London), 27 September 1998 Share this page:

The selection of the above quotes and the writing of the accompanying notes was performed by the author David Paul Wagner. About Us • Contact Us • Privacy • Terms of Use © 2005-23 Wide World of Quotes. All Rights Reserved.