“One of the things writing can do is get to the pain. All of us have pain; you can’t live a human life without it. Much of that pain is very deep and comes from places where there should be love. If you’re any good, that’s where you go. Writing has to go for the blood. Writing is not easy—it’s the hardest thing I know how to do. But when you get to that moment of human truth, that’s where you want to be.”
-Salman Rushdie, episode 433 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
For more than three decades, author Salman Rushdie has lived under threat. In 1989, a fatwa forced him into hiding. In 2022, he was stabbed more than a dozen times while speaking on stage—and nearly killed.
Less than two years later, he recounted the attack (and remarkable recovery) in his memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. Now, at seventy-eight, Rushdie returns to fiction with The Eleventh Hour, a collection of five interlinked stories that explore anger, peace, mortality, and legacy.
We begin with the inspirations behind the new quintet (5:52), Rushdie’s formative, bookish years in Bombay (14:20), and the tumultuous family life that shaped his early writing (21:20). Then, he reflects on his time at Cambridge (29:30), his stint as a copywriter (35:32), and the lightbulb moment that led to his breakout novel, Midnight’s Children (39:40).
On the back half, we discuss the fatwa (50:15) and book burning of The Satanic Verses (53:30), threats to free speech (56:36), and the slippery slope of political censorship (1:04:30). We also talk about Rushdie’s recovery and return to the page (1:14:10), his meta Curb Your Enthusiasm appearance (1:08:37), and the lasting power of literature (1:24:00).
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at talkeasypod@gmail.com.
Show-notes:
- Order Salman Rushdie’s new book The Eleventh Hour.
- Read more of his work: Knife, Victory City, Languages of Truth, Quichotte, The Golden House, Joseph Anton, The Satanic Verses, and Midnight’s Children.
- For more talks, hear Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, and George Saunders.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi. Reference photograph by Sarah Schneider.
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