“Salman Rushdie said, "A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return." So if someone tells me I've written something that's historically inaccurate, I can just tell them, "Salman Rushdie said I could." :)”

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

“On page 605, Blumenthal says that 'I made friends with Hitchens's friends the novelists Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie.' True in its way. I particularly remember the occasion when he called me up and invited me to dinner with Dick Morris, but only on condition that I brought Rushdie (who was staying in my house) along with me. No Rushdie: no invitation. So I never did get to meet Dick Morris.”

“I was at a party in 1989 and Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie were sitting on a sofa wondering where the next generation of great British writers would come from. As we talked, it became clear they had never read a word by me.”

“I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may mean? I myself do not know, but if you listen, things will be said that are perhaps not written in this book. And this will be due not to me but to the One who lives and speaks in both.”

“Now tell me something. What’s your word for husband?” “Hellren, I suppose. The short version is just hell.” She laughed softly. “Go figure.”