Salman Rushdie Quotes

I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

You know, I feel like my job is to write a book. Then filmmakers come and they make a movie. And they're two really different art forms.

I would love to option 'Crying of Lot 49' and turn it into a movie.

I'm not sure my books would translate into movies very easily. So rather than have someone do a terrible job, I haven't been willing to sell them.

If it's scary, it's supposed to be scary. If it's funny, it's supposed to be funny. That's all I try to do.

Theatre audiences can't be made to think and cry: at best, they can be made to think and laugh, or to feel and cry.

I've cried over string arrangements.

Turning one's novel into a movie script is rather like making a series of sketches for a painting that has long ago been finished and framed.

Personally, I'm a big reader, and I've never wanted any of my favorite novels to be made into movies.

I want to earn a reader's capacity to be moved.

I always say if music can't make you cry, you're a hopeless case. I don't cry very much myself, but it's my job to make you cry.

I am trying to give the best performance possible in 400 pages. I want readers to be scared; I want them to be moved. Entertainment doesn't necessarily mean something trivial, but it does mean people wanting to get to the end of a book.

I want you to laugh and cry. That's what I do.

If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level.

As you follow the escapades or the journey of the hero through a story, it evokes some kind of emotion in the viewers. The director's job is to make sure that the audience goes through the journey and has an emotional reaction.

When I write fiction, I never try to deliver a message; I just want to tell a story. But I admit that I want the story to be memorable and the characters to touch the reader's heart.

It is as true for the writer as for the reader that any novel worth its ink should be an experience first and foremost - not an essay, not a statement, not an orderly rollout of themes and propositions.

There's something really nice about writing something on Wednesday and watching it being performed live for a studio audience on Tuesday. You never really get that with novels.

What I find frustrating about scripted television is that it's rare that you are surprised by how you feel about the character, or how you feel about the show.

People are usually so disappointed with book-to-movie translations.

The thing is that I always consider myself lucky that I can actually cry listening to some music.

Comedy is harder, because if there's no laughs, it's pretty bad. But drama, if there's no reaction, you can say, 'Well, it's not their cup of tea. Maybe it's too heavy for the audience.'

I think you are doing a disservice to a novel just by transposing it wholesale onto the screen, because it doesn't work. They are completely different beasts.

I don't think you can cry if the script is rubbish. I have to feel it; it's as simple as that. It's just like if you're watching something moving, and you feel yourself welling up. It's the same thing. You're just being carried along with the story. There's nothing magical about it. I think I'm in touch with my emotions, and I can't help it.

I've seen movies that are slavishly devoted to books but don't work because they haven't turned it into a movie: they've turned it into a dramatisation of the different scenes.