Salman Rushdie

"Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one."

"I do have a lot of time for people in my life, and friendship is a very important subject for me. I think I'm unusual among the writers I know in that respect."

"When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced."[Books vs. Goons, L.A. Times, April 24, 2005]"

"A poet's work . . . to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep."

"If I were asked for a one-sentence sound bite on religion, I would say I was against it."

"A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return."

"Friendships are the family we make - not the one we inherit. I've always been someone to whom friendship, elective affinities, is as important as family."