"Don't be afraid to be controversial. It means you're saying something interesting."

"The world is a chaotic place, and the job of the writer is to bring some order to it, even if it's just a temporary order."

"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."

"Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true."

"The Satanic Verses is a novel about migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death, London, and Bombay. It is a serious work of literature."