The liveliness of literature lies in its exceptionality, in being the individual, idiosyncratic vision of one human being, in which, to our delight and great surprise, we may find our own vision reflected.

—Salman Rushdie

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About Salman Rushdie

Portrait of Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations. His novels are typically set on the Indian subcontinent, feature an Indian protagonist,...

More quotations from Salman Rushdie

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.

—Salman Rushdie

To explain why we become attached to our birthplaces, we pretend that we are trees and speak of "roots." Look under your feet. You will not find gnarled growths sprouting through the soles. Roots, I sometimes think, are a conservative myth, designed to keep us in our places.

—Salman Rushdie

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More quotations tagged with “liveliness”

There are wonderful things in real jazz, the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.

—Henri Matisse

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Disposition to derision and insult is awakened by the softness to foppery, the swell of insolence, the liveliness of levity, or the solemnity of grandeur by the sprightly trip, the stately stalk, the formal strut, and the lofty mein by gestures intended to catch the eye, and by looks elaborately formed as evidences of importance.

—Samuel Johnson

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I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

—Vincent Van Gogh

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