"Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century."

Being, Doubt

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"Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century."

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"To me, living in the present means being aware of your conscious choice to focus on the past, present or future - it is not necessarily having to focus on the present."

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"I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key."

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"Good habits are worth being fanatical about."

John Irving, American Novelist

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"Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing."

William Shakespeare, English Dramatist

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"I didn't mind being unpopular at school, because everyone else was a heathen."

Jeanette Winterson, British Novelist

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"Thinking you're immortal is weirdly similar to being immortal."

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Explore more quotes by Salman Rushdie

"There are those of us who learn to live completely in the moment. For such people the Past vanishes and the future loses meaning. There is only the Present, which means that two of the three Aalim are surplus to requirements. And then there are those of us who are trapped in yesterdays, in the memory of a lost love, or a childhood home, or a dreadful crime. And some people live only for a better tomorrow; for them the past ceases to exist."

Time

"What Rushdie took away from reading Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum: Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be ruthless. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things--childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves--that go on slipping like sand, through our fingers."

Creativity

"What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry."

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"Most of what matters in your life takes place in your absence."

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"Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one."

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"I do not need the idea of God to explain the world I live in."

God

"Death and life were just adjacent verandas."

Philosophy

"Unless, of course, there's no such thing as chance;...in which case, we should either-optimistically-get up and cheer, because if everything is planned in advance, then we all have a meaning and are spared the terror of knowing ourselves to be random, without a why; or else, of course, we might-as pessimists-give up right here and now, understanding the futility of thought decision action, since nothing we think makes any difference anyway, things will be as they will. Where, then, is optimism? In fate or in chaos?"

Philosophy

"When 'Midnight's Children' came out, people in the West tended to respond to the fantasy elements in the novel, to praise it in those terms. In India, people read it like a history book."

Literature

"OK, publishing a book and releasing a movie is all very well, but Tottenham beating Man. U. 3-2... priceless."

Sports