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Reprehensible ideas don’t disappear if you make them illegal, by driving them under the carpet you might feed them, or make them taboo ... I’d rather know the racist in the room.

— Salman Rushdie

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Freedom

More quotes by Salman Rushdie

The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step outside the frame.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999)

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

Imaginary Homelands p. 391 (1992)

I do not envy people who think they have a complete explanation of the world, for the simple reason that they are obviously wrong.

Salman Rushdie — Talking with David Frost (1993)

Those who oppose the novel most vociferously today are of the opinion that intermingling with a different culture will inevitably weaken and ruin their own. I am of the opposite opinion.

Imaginary Homelands (1992)

To choose unbelief is to choose mind over dogma, to trust in our humanity instead of all these dangerous divinities.

All Salman Rushdie quotes →

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What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

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Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

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There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Salman Rushdie (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.