Salman Rushdie Quotes

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

The only privilege literature deserves - and this privilege it requires in order to exist - is the privilege of being in the arena of discourse, the place where the struggle of our languages can be acted out.

The present struggle seems less about abolishing big government than about who gets to use it.

Dare I speak ,to oppressed and opressor in the same voice? Dare I speak to you in a language that will move beyond the boundaries of domination- a language, that will not bind you, fence you in, or hold you? Language is also a place of struggle. The oppressed struggle in language to recover ourselves, to reconcile, to reunite, to renew. Our words are not without meaning, they are an action, a resistance. Language is also a place of struggle.

Freedom cannot be bestowed - it must be achieved.

The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience.

In the midst of our lives, of our freedom and our struggles, we have to make a radical, absolute decision. And we never know when lightening will strike us out of the blue. It may be when we least expect to be asked whether we have the absolute faith and trust to say yes

Our detachments move us toward freedom and death.

The wind picks up. It sends leaves scurrying for cover until a softer breeze blows through, settling them down again as if to say, Shhh, there, there, it's all right. One leaf still dances in the air. It spins higher and higher, defying gravity and logic, stretching for something just out of reach. It shall have to fall, of course. Eventually. But for now, I hold my breath, willing it to keep going, taking comfort in its struggle.

I will dance and resist and dance and persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than death.

They ask me what I'm writing for - I'm writing to show you what we're fighting for.

Freedom is completely without meaning unless it is related to necessity, unless it represents victory over necessity.

No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption (Freire, 1970, p. 54).

I mean that two of any thing is a most uncomfortable number. One may do as he pleases. Six may get along well enough. But two must always struggle for mastery. Two must always watch each other. The eyes of all the world will be on two, uncertain which of them to follow.

I have come to an unalterable decision - to go and live forever in Polynesia. Then I can end my days in peace and freedom, without thoughts of tomorrow and this eternal struggle against idiots.

If you have to be careful because of oppression and censorship, this pressure produces diamonds.

Homeless people's dogs are more knowledgeable than dogs in Beverly Hills. Why? Because they explore, they move forward, they go through the ups and downs in life. A dog in a wealthy environment, there is no downs except what he lives.

The thing that gives you power also traps you.

What if English toil and blood Was poured forth, even as a flood? It availed, Oh, Liberty, To dim, but not extinguish thee.

Throughout history, government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man's liberty.

To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.

Resistance is the secret of joy!

Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.

The strong man wants to be allowed to DO; the little man wants to stop him.

Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near.