Salman Rushdie

Indian-born British-American novelist (born 1947)

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Born 1947 · age 79United Kingdom

United Kingdom

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Wikipedia
101 languages
Cross-language footprint
Age
79
Born 1947
Known for
Bridget Jones's Diary
2001

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

A novelist whose fourth book made him the target of a fatwa and decades of death threats — threats that became real in 2022 when he survived a stabbing that cost him an eye.

Biography

About

Born in India in 1947, Rushdie studied history at Cambridge and turned to fiction that wove magical realism through the faultlines between East and West. His second novel, Midnight's Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was later named the best winner in the prize's history. Then came The Satanic Verses in 1988. Iran's supreme leader issued a fatwa calling for his death; the book was banned in 20 countries; killings and bombings followed, cited as motivated by the novel. Rushdie lived under protection, was knighted in 2007, moved to the United States, and taught at Emory and NYU. In 2022…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

said1992

Those who oppose the novel most vociferously today are of the opinion that intermingling with a different culture will inevitably weaken and ruin their own.

— Imaginary Homelands (1992)

Salman Rushdie

said1992

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

— Imaginary Homelands p. 391 (1992)

Salman Rushdie

said1992

It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity.

— Imaginary Homelands (1992)

Salman Rushdie

said6 Feb 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.

— Herbert Reade Memorial Lecture (6 February 1990)

Salman Rushdie

said1990