Vertigo is the conflict between the fear of falling and the desire to fall. – Salman Rushdie
The response of anybody interested in liberty is that we all have a say and the ability to have an argument is exactly what liberty is, even though it may never be resolved. In any authoritarian society the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside he will come after you. – Salman Rushdie
A poets work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep. – Salman Rushdie
What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness second, their imagination, and third, their industry. – Salman Rushdie
My dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, hes always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. – Cornel West