Salman Rushdie Quotes

It may be said that artist and censor differ in this wise: that the first is a decent mind in an indecent body and that the second is an indecent mind in a decent body.

Silence the artist and you have silenced the most articulate voice the people have.

But once a culture develops sufficiently to become skeptical, the idea of censorship becomes less attractive. To suppress a book or a picture or a sculpture or a play or a film is a terrible act of aggression against the artist who created it. This is a miming of capital punishment; it destroys the life that has been emanated by a life.

Obscenity is a notable enhancer of life and is suppressed at grave peril to the arts.

Nothing is harmful to literature except censorship, and that almost never stops literature going where it wants to go either, because literature has a way of surpassing everything that blocks it and growing stronger for the exercise.

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

Listen, anybody who has a film festival has the right to show what they want.

I will never be a fan of any kind of political correctness: I think it's instant death to creativity.

Performance artists in a free society have the right to do the most extraordinary and bizarre things. That’s called ‘Freedom of Speech.’

For better or worse, we are the Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit. Millions of people toil in the shadow of the law we make, and much of their livelihood is made possible by the existence of intellectual property rights. But much of their livelihood - and much of the vibrancy of our culture - also depends on the existence of other intangible rights: The right to draw ideas from a rich and varied public domain, and the right to mock, for profit as well as fun, the cultural icons of our time.

I think they should make it a felony to criticise a film product. Particularly my film product. It's anti-American.

Filmmakers and artists always thrive during more liberal times.

I must say here in France I had more serenity or security as I was working because I knew I was making the film the way I wished and that the film would be seen, ultimately, which is not always the case in Iran. In Iran, you always work having in mind this worry of will I be able to carry on my project as I wish and will the audience see the film.

It's nice to have a variety in creative work that I like to do.

Music is an artform, and I always though art was beyond censorship. I thought this was a common view. Apparently, I was wrong.

The fact that we don't have censorship on the Internet really gives you a lot of freedom, as makers and creative people do what they believe in.

I will always demand the right for theatre to talk about anything and anyone. Without exception. None.

Even if censorship might encourage creative ways to circumvent it, it still slows down progress and our ability to realise our full creative potential. And that is why I vehemently fight against it.

To have art suppressed is very dangerous to society.

Art is freedom. If you defend art, you defend freedom.

I think arts should be liberal, people should be allowed to express themselves. It happens in most democratic countries in the world, and I don't see why it should be different in India.

Art is where we make a stand. If we don't make it there, freedom of expression is lost for everyone - for artists, for journalists, and for everyday people.

As a director and a creative person, I can say banning anything is wrong.

Art penetrates, no matter how many bans you put out.

Most people are afraid to trust their imaginations and the artist is not.