Salman Rushdie
Author, "The Golden House"
Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian novelist and writer, author of ten novels including Midnight’s Children (Booker Prize, 1981), Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, and The Golden House. The publication of his fourth novel "The Satanic Verses" in 1988 led to violent protests in the Muslim world for its depiction of the prophet Mohammad. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a death fatwa against Rushdie, which sent him into hiding for nearly a decade. Rushdie weathered countless death threats and many assassination attempts.

Salman Rushie: ‘Write for readers, not for critics’
"You get to this age, you realize that there are people who will not like what you do no matter what you do," says Booker Prize-winner Salman Rushdie.
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Could A.I. write a novel like Hemingway?
Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in a short time. So at what point will it be able to emulate the great artists and writers of our time?
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How an Anti-Intellectual Elite Are Turning the World Upside Down
The controversial author predicted the rise of Trump by placing "a ruthlessly ambitious, narcissistic, media-savvy villain sporting makeup and coloured hair" in his new book, written before the election. But can he explain the hate of knowledge that persists in the world today?
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The Difference Between Pulp Fiction and Lasting Literature
What makes a great book... well... great? Author Salman Rushdie gives us his idea on what separates the classics from the rest of the class.
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Hate Violent Ideologies, Love the People Who Hold Them—That’s Being an Intellectual
Salman doesn't know why we can't all just get along. If both sides just talked to each other and were less emotional and more pragmatic in their arguments, we might have a better chance of coexisting.
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Islam’s Violent Factions Are Mostly Killing Other Muslims, Says Salman Rushdie
It is one thing not to discriminate against people, says Salman Rushdie, i.e. peaceful practitioners of Islam, but to foreclose an open debate over the merits of religion is a mistake.
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Want to Help Defuse ISIS’ Propaganda? See How It Works from the Inside.
Propaganda is nothing new — it's as old as politics itself — but adding the connective power of the Internet to the equation reveals an entirely new level of media that ISIS is all too happy to exploit.
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Salman Rushdie: True Stories Don’t Tell the Whole Truth
The acclaimed author delved deeply into magic realism for his latest book. Here, he describes why this genre continues to thrive.
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Salman Rushdie on the Refugee Crisis: One Good Reason for Europe to Worry
In order to actually solve the refugee crisis you have to solve the problems from which the refugees are fleeing.
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Inspiration Is Nonsense
The key to writing is concentration, not inspiration, says the author. It requires deep attention to your characters, to the world they live in, and to the story you have […]
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How to Liberate Iran: Drop Nintendos and Big Macs From Planes
Asked how we should strive to discuss terrorism and Islam, the author suggests a better way of looking at the struggle in the Middle East is to view it as a battle within Islam over modernity rather than a battle between Islam and the West.
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Do Chicks Dig Fatwas?
Salman Rushdie says that when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decreed that he should be killed in 1989 it wasn’t so great for his love life.
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“You Have to Live Until You Die”
The author is inspired by his friend Christopher Hitchens’ heroic effort to live, to write, and to continue to be himself even while he very publicly battles cancer.
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The Double Standard for Immigrant Authors
Western writers have always given themselves the freedom to write about any subject. But if a writer from the Third World wanted to write a book set in Illinois, people […]
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Magical Realism Is Still Realism
People tend to focus on the “magic” more than the “realism.” But, like all fiction, fantasy arrives at truth via the road of untruth.
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Video Games and the Future of Storytelling
Rushdie is fascinated by video games like “Red Dead Redemption,” which allows gamers much more agency to choose the path they take through the narrative. Will all storytelling have to […]
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