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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Salman Rushdie says he is 'over' knife attack as author reveals 'important moment' he returned to New York lecture stage where he was repeatedly stabbed
Sir Salman Rushdie says 'I'm over it' following the horrific knife attack which has now seen the crook jailed. Hadi Matar, 27, was sentenced last month to 25 years for attempted murder after he repeatedly stabbed the author on stage during a lecture in New York in 2022. Sir Salman recently told Radio 4's Today programme that he was 'pleased' the man who set out to kill him had received the maximum possible prison sentence. But he wishes to move on from the terrifying ordeal and focus on his new book coming out later this year. Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales he said: 'It will be nice to talk about fiction again because ever since the attack, really the only thing anybody's wanted to talk about is the attack, but I'm over it.' He added that an 'important moment' came for him when he and his wife Eliza 'went back to the scene of the crime to show myself I could stand up where I fell down'. The award-winning Midnight's Children and Satanic Verses writer was left blind in one eye after the attack as well as damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm. The event had tight security, with sniffer dogs and bag searches. Hadi Matar, 27, was sentenced last month to 25 years for attempted murder after he repeatedly stabbed the author on stage during a lecture in New York in 2022 Once Sir Rushdie entered the stage to an audience of applause, he joked: 'I can't see everyone - but I can hear them.' Although he said he felt 'excellent' he added there 'were bits of me that I'm annoyed about, like not having a right eye. But on the whole, I've been very fortunate and I'm in better shape than maybe I would have expected.' Last year, the 77-year-old published a memoir called Knife about the ordeal, which he said was his way of 'fighting back'. It comes decades after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses which made him the target of death threats as some Muslims consider blasphemous for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad. A short story collection called The Eleventh Hour is set to be released by the author in November.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Salman Rushdie says he is "over" knife attack
Sir Salman Rushdie says he has moved on from the knife attack which has seen his attacker jailed for attempted Matar, 27, was sentenced to 25 years last month after repeatedly stabbing Sir Salman on a New York lecture stage in Salman, who has a new book out later this year, told the Hay Festival that an "important moment" came for him when he and his wife Eliza "went back to the scene of the crime to show myself I could stand up where I fell down". "It will be nice to talk about fiction again because ever since the attack, really the only thing anybody's wanted to talk about is the attack, but I'm over it." Sir Salman recently told Radio 4's Today programme that he was "pleased" the man who tried to kill him had received the maximum possible prison Midnight's Children and Satanic Verses writer was left with life-changing injuries after the incident - he is now blind in one eye, has damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his year, Sir Salman published a book titled Knife reflecting on the event, which he has described as "my way of fighting back".The attack came 35 years after Sir Salman's controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which had long made him the target of death threats for its portrayal of the Prophet November, the author will publish a short story collection, The Eleventh Hour, his first work of fiction to be written since the stabbing. Tight security Security was tight for Sir Salman's event, with sniffer dogs present and bag checks leading to a 15-minute waved at the audience as he entered the stage and humbly gestured to them to stop applauding before joking that: "I can't see everyone - but I can hear them."He said he was feeling "excellent" although there "were bits of me that I'm annoyed about, like not having a right eye. But on the whole, I've been very fortunate and I'm in better shape that maybe I would have expected." In a wide-ranging discussion, Sir Salman also touched on US politics, declaring that "America was not in great shape". In an apparent reference to President Donald Trump, Sir Salman spoke about "the moment of hope, that image of Barack and Michelle Obama walking down the mall in DC with the crowds around them... people dancing in the streets in New York. And to go from that to the orange moment that we live in, it's, let's just say, he said he was still positive about the future."I think I suffer from the optimism disease... I can't help thinking somehow it will be alright." Free speech Speaking about free speech, he said "it means tolerating people who say things you don't like".He recalled a time when a film "in which I was the villain", made around the time of the uproar over Satanic Verses, was not classified by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) "because it was in a hundred ways defamatory" but he asked them to allow its release. "So they gave it a certificate... and nobody went, you know why? Lousy movie. And it taught me a lesson. Let it out and trust the audience. And that's still my view."I think we do live in a moment when people are too eager to prohibit speech they disapprove of. That's a very slippery slope" and warned young people "to think about it." When asked about the effect of AI on authors, Sir Salman said: "I don't have Chat GPT... I try very hard to pretend it doesn't exist. Someone asked it to write a couple of hundred words like me... it was terrible. And it has no sense of humour."Despite being considered one of the greatest living writers, Sir Salman joked that authors "don't even have that much money... except the two of us (him and host Erica Wagner) and those who write about child wizards... the Taylor Swift of literature," referring to JK Rowling. "Good on her." More from the Hay Festival Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is writing about rich people againJacqueline Wilson says she wouldn't return to Tracy Beaker as an adult
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Salman Rushdie says AI won't threaten authors until it can make people laugh
Salman Rushdie has said that authors are safe from the threat of AI – until the moment it can create a book that makes people laugh. Speaking at the Hay festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, Rushdie said he had 'never tried AI' and liked to pretend it didn't exist. But the problem AI had was that it couldn't make up its own jokes, the writer said. 'It has no sense of humour – you don't want to hear a joke told by ChatGPT. If there's a moment when there's a funny book written by ChatGPT I think we're screwed.' Rushdie was making his most high-profile in-person appearance in the UK since a stabbing in the US while he was on stage left him blind in the right eye. The audience was asked to arrive in good time because of the extra security. Police officers stood by in the wings and security staff flanked the stage. Rushdie, 77, said he was glad that his attacker, Hadi Matar, 27, had been convicted of attempted murder and assault and jailed for 25 years. But he said what had given him closure was writing about it in his book Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder. He said: 'I'm glad that trial is over and done with. And that he got the maximum sentence. The closure was more finishing writing about it.' Rushdie said he was also pleased he had new fiction coming out later in the year and writing it 'felt like coming home'. He continued: 'Ever since the attack, really, the only thing anybody's wanted to talk to me about is the attack. And I'm over it. It will be nice to have stories to talk about. 'When I wanted to be a writer, it never occurred to me that I would write about myself. That seemed like the most uninteresting thing of all. I wanted to make stuff up.' Rushdie also spoke about Donald Trump, saying the world was in an 'orange moment'. He said: 'I don't know what to do with it – he was elected', but added: 'So was Hitler, by the way.' Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Rushdie argued that in a world where people struggled to agree on the truth, stories and fables were even more important – and could feel more real. But he said he did not like books that tried to teach him something and preferred ones he could inhabit. He joked that most writers did not make much money – unless they wrote about 'child wizards' and suggested JK Rowling was the Taylor Swift of literature. Rushdie spent years in hiding because of threats to his life after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, a fictional story inspired by the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, in 1988. In August 2022, he was attacked on a New York lecture stage and left with severe injuries including vision loss, damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage. In Knife, Rushdie relived the traumatic events of the attack and its aftermath, describing his eye lolling on his cheek like 'a large soft-boiled egg', but also described his healing and recovery.
CTV News
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Salman Rushdie says ‘pleased' with attacker's jail sentence
London, United Kingdom — Salman Rushdie said Monday he was 'pleased' with the maximum 25-year jail sentence handed to a man who tried to kill him with a knife at a New York cultural centre in 2022. 'I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and hopefully he uses it to reflect upon his deeds,' Rushdie told BBC radio in an interview. Hadi Matar was sentenced to 25 years in a New York court on May 16 after being convicted of attempted murder and assault. Video footage played during the trial showed Matar rushing onto stage and plunging a knife into Rushdie in the 2022 attack which left the British-American author blind in one eye. Last year, Rushdie published a memoir recounting the near-death experience called 'Knife', in which he has an imagined conversation with Matar. 'If I was to really meet him... I wouldn't get very much out of him,' Rushdie told the BBC. 'I doubt that he would open his heart to me.' 'And so I thought, well, I could open it by myself. I'd probably do it better than a real conversation would,' said the author, who did not attend the sentencing earlier this month. Rushdie has for decades lived under the shadow of Iran's 1989 fatwa calling for his murder over alleged blasphemy in his novel 'The Satanic Verses'. Matar previously told media he had only read two pages of 'The Satanic Verses' but believed the author had 'attacked Islam'. Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai but moved to England as a boy, was propelled into the spotlight with the Booker Prize-winning 'Midnight's Children' (1981) based in post-independence India. His publisher announced in March that 'The Eleventh Hour,' a collection of short stories examining themes and places of interest to Rushdie, will be released on November 4, 2025.
The Independent
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Sir Salman Rushdie ‘pleased' by maximum sentence for attacker
Sir Salman Rushdie has said he is 'pleased' that the man who stabbed him multiple times on stage received the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The 77-year-old Booker Prize-winning author gave evidence during the 2025 trial about the 2022 attack at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, which left him blind in one eye. US citizen Hadi Matar was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in February and sentenced this month. He was also sentenced to seven years for wounding another man who was on stage with the writer at the time of the attack. On Monday, Indian-born British author Sir Salman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and I hope he uses it to reflect upon his deeds.' He also spoke about working with BBC producer Alan Yentob, who died on Saturday, on a 2024 BBC Two programme that featured an artificial intelligence (AI) creation, based on his fictional conversation with Matar that he recalled in his autobiography Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder. Sir Salman said: 'I thought if I was to really meet him, to ask him questions, I wouldn't get very much out of him. I doubt that he would open his heart to me. 'And so I thought, 'well, I could open it by myself. I'd probably do it better than a real conversation would'.' He added: '(The AI animation) was very startling. I have to say it really certainly made a point.' Sir Salman called former BBC executive and TV presenter Yentob not just an 'unbelievable champion of the arts', but someone who has a 'real gift for friendship'. 'He's one of the giants of British media in the last generation,' he also said. 'I think he will be remembered as a maker of great programmes and as an enabler of great programmes as well.' Sir Salman recalled Yentob gave him his first break with a programme that saw Sir Ben Kingsley read his book Midnight's Children before he won the Booker Prize, and the publication of his 1988 book The Satanic Verses. It was The Satanic Verses that saw Sir Salman accused of being blasphemous by hardline Muslims and prompted then Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his death in 1989. He later spoofed himself and Yentob, when they appeared to arm wrestle on the BBC satirical programme W1A. Sir Salman also said that it was 'horrendous' that the Kids Company controversy made him resign as the author added: 'I think it needs to be said, repeatedly, (he was) completely exonerated, and so were all the other directors.' Yentob served as chairman of the board of trustees for Kids Company, founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh, from 2003 until the collapse of the charity in 2015. He always insisted there was no conflict of interest in his decision to call Newsnight about its investigation into Kids Company and had not 'abused my position at the BBC'. During Yentob's tenure at BBC2, Absolutely Fabulous, starring Jennifer Saunders and Dame Joanna Lumley, arts series The Late Show and Have I Got News For You, were commissioned. He also launched CBBC and CBeebies, commissioned Colin Firth-starring Pride And Prejudice, and in 2024 was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the King for services to the arts and media.
