Salman Rushdie

Indian-born British-American novelist (born 1947) · United Kingdom · Writers · also United States · also India

Salman Rushdie is read about 4,484 times a day, in 101 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

Something wrong?

Compare Claim

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.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Fiction Screenwriting Movies United Kingdom Europe

A life in dates

2022Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAward2019Humanist of the YearAward2015Norman Mailer PrizeAward2014PEN Pinter PrizeAward2010Common Wealth Award of Distinguished ServiceAward2009National Arts AwardsAward2008James Joyce AwardsAward2001Honorary Doctorate from the University of Paris-VIIAward1996The British Book AwardsAward1995Costa Book AwardsAward1992“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.”In their wordsImaginary Homelands (1992)Read the whole statement

“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.”In their wordsImaginary Homelands (1992)Read the whole statement

Austrian State Prize for European LiteratureAwardMythopoeic AwardsAward1990“The responsibility for violence lies with those who perpetrate it.”In their words"In Good Faith" (1990), p. 19Read the whole statement

1989“The zealots also attack me by false analogy, comparing my book to pornography and demanding a ban on both. Many Islamic spokesmen have compared my work to anti-Semitism.”In their words2 March 1989"The Book Burning" The New York Review of Books (March 2, 1989)Read the whole statement

1985“God, Satan, Paradise, and Hell all vanished one day in my fifteenth year, when I quite abruptly lost my faith. ...”In their words"In God We Trust" (1985)Read the whole statement

1984“It matters, it always matters, to name rubbish as rubbish ... to do otherwise is to legitimize it.”In their words"Outside The Whale" in Granta (1984)Read the whole statement

1983Fellow of the Royal Society of LiteratureAward1981Booker PrizeAward1947Born19 June 1947

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Salman Rushdie, 2024

2016 National Book Festival Arthors 35

2016 National Book Festival Arthors 39

2016 National Book Festival Arthors 40

2016 National Book Festival Arthors 41

2016 National Book Festival Arthors 42

2016 National Book Festival Arthors 43

2016 National Book Festival Arthors 44

In their own words 10

Salman Rushdie

10 statements, newest first

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.
1992, Imaginary Homelands (1992), Own words
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
1992, Imaginary Homelands p. 391 (1992), Own words
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.
1992, Imaginary Homelands (1992), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences2022

Companion of Honour2022

Humanist of the Year2019

Emperor Has No Clothes Award2018

Gold Medal of the Círculo de Bellas Artes2015

Norman Mailer Prize2015

PEN Pinter Prize2014

Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award2014

Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service2010

Golden PEN Award2010

St. Louis Literary Award2009

National Arts Awards2009

Carl Sandburg Literary Award2009

James Joyce Awards2008

Crossword Book Award2005

Honorary Doctorate from the University of Paris-VII2001

Honorary doctor of the University of Liège1999

The British Book Awards1996

Aristeion Prize1996

Costa Book Awards1995

Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres1993

Kurt Tucholsky Prize1992

Mythopoeic Awards1992

Austrian State Prize for European Literature1992

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature1992

Costa Book Awards1988

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature1983

James Tait Black Memorial Prize1981

Booker Prize1981

Honorary Doctor of the University of Tromso

Knight Bachelor

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Family

Father Anis Ahmed Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

Partners

Children

Is this everyone?

Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong.

Correct this family

About this person

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, at the Chautauqua Institution, he was stabbed onstage - he lost his right eye, suffered damage to his liver and hands, and survived.

Country

United Kingdom

In common with Salman

Bette MidlerAlso in Then She Found Me (2007)

Lila DownsAlso in River of Fundament (2014)

Jeffrey ArcherAlso in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

Debbie HarryAlso in River of Fundament (2014)

Tim RobbinsAlso in Then She Found Me (2007)

Margaret AtwoodAlso in Angela Carter: Of Wolves & Women (2018)

Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.