I used to say, 'There is a God-shaped hole in me.' For a long time I stressed the absence, the hole. Now I find it is the shape which has become more important.

Though he enjoys writing Salman Rushdie says that he would have become an actor if his writing career had not been successful. S. "In the South.

He is said to combine magical realism with historical fiction; his work is concerned with the many connections disruptions and migrations between East and West. In 2008 The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.