A little thinking is a dangerous thing.

Reading is a very different thing than performing. In fact, one of the things I think that doesn't work in books on tape is if the person doing the reading "acts" too much; it becomes irritating to you listening to it.

I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women.

You don't that often see writers being sought out when there are matters of great moment to discuss. And I think that's a loss.

If the culture shifts, if people think differently about women, the art will shift, too. You can't ask art to make social change. It's not what it's for.

In writing 'The Satanic Verses,' I think I was writing for the first time from the whole of myself. The English part, the Indian part. The part of me that loves London, and the part that longs for Bombay. And at my typewriter, alone, I could indulge this.

I do think of Bombay as my hometown. Those are the streets I walked when I was learning to walk. And it's the place that my imagination has returned to more than anywhere else.

I think that England made a very big, historical mistake to allow itself to become the kind of terrorist capital of the world.

I think that a lot of us, whether we are religious or not - there are no words to express some things except religious words. For instance, 'soul.'