Salman Rushdie on life and death

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas — uncertainty, progress, change — into crimes.

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

John Lennon1940–1980Double Fantasy (1980), “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.

James Dean1931–1955

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948

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