# Quote — Salman Rushdie, Knife

> It had been thirty-three and a half years since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s notorious death order against me and all those involved in the publication of The Satanic Verses, and during those years, I confess, I had sometimes imagined my assassin rising up in some public forum or other and coming for me in just this way. So my first thought when I saw this murderous shape rushing toward me was: So it’s you. Here you are.

- Author: [Salman Rushdie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/salman-rushdie.md)
- Book: [Knife](https://www.leafyquotes.com/salman-rushdie/knife.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie#Knife:_Meditations_After_an_Attempted_Murder_(2024)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/salman-rushdie/knife/it-had-been

## More from this book

> Art is not a luxury. It stands at the essence of our humanity, and it asks for no special protection except the right to exist.
>
> It accepts argument, criticism, even rejection. It does not accept violence.
>
> And in the end, it outlasts those who oppress it. The poet Ovid was exiled by Augustus Caesar, but the poetry of Ovid has outlasted the Roman Empire. The poet Mandelstam's life was ruined by Joseph Stalin, but his poetry has outlasted the Soviet Union. The poet Lorca was murdered by the thugs of General Franco, but his art has outlasted the fascism of the Falange.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/salman-rushdie/knife/art-is-not.md)