All liberty required was that the space for discourse itself be protected. Liberty lay in the argument itself, not the resolution of that argument, in the ability to quarrel, even with the most cherished beliefs of others; a free society was not placid but turbulent. The bazaar of conflicting was the place where freedom rang.

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.