“It amazes me that some young people put freedom of expression, which is sacred, below their own interests.”

Did you ever think that one day you would write this book?

No, never. I promise. Even after the attack, I didn’t want to write it for a long time.

he changed his mind.

This seemed important to me. This was necessary because it was impossible for me to think about anything else. I thought a thousand times about those 27 seconds in which that young man stabbed me with the knife. That was August 12, 2022. So I changed my mind, yes. I started writing and connected in a very powerful way to the story of what happened. Here it is.

Now what does this have to do with fear?

nobody. A consequence of this fact is that, obviously, I have to be more cautious. But caution is not the same as fear.

Are you not afraid to become Joseph Anton again (this is a pseudonym he used for more than two decades to travel around the world and try to avoid detection due to the threat of Islamic fundamentalism).

Well, I didn’t even plan it. No intention whatsoever of returning to that name.

‘Cuchillo’ is a powerful story about the experience of an attack, about the imminence of death, but it is also Quevedo’s declaration of love, of continued love beyond death. So ultimately this is the pinnacle of life.

I would be very happy if they connect me with Quevedo. But let’s be clear: I’m not just telling the story of a crime and a near-death experience. But I make a story about life. About joy. About joy. About happiness. about love. Because life is the same. I wanted to establish a distinction between the experience of love and death. They have equal weight in this book.

This leads to a battle between the hatred that gives rise to the attack and celebrating the survival of those who do not allow themselves to fall into the mechanics of hate.

that’s how it is. When I started thinking about how to write this text, I thought that just talking about aggression was not enough. I might send it in 10 or 15 pages. The challenge was to find its prevalence in the story. And I understood that the book was about three people: the attacker, my wife (Eliza) and me. They represent the tension between hate and love. And I understood the last triangle as the repository of these two main human causes.

The attacker was born after 1989, when Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against you for ‘The Satanic Verses’. And perhaps you too may not have read anything about it. But he felt that he had a mission to kill her.

It’s very surprising, yes. The boy, born in New Jersey, United States, moved to Lebanon and became radicalized there. I understand that part. But from that situation until he decided to try to kill me, four years passed. What happens in your mind during that time? what was he doing? how was your life? This is a puzzle to me.

Are you planning to check it out?

I’m afraid not. When the trial is called he will have to testify and I will find out even more things than I know now. But still, I insist that there is a mystery in it.

Does that mystery appeal to you?

I am interested, yes. And that’s why I wrote that chapter of the book, imagining what it would be like. that you think. What are your feelings? Ultimately I wanted to reduce him to imagination, as if he were just a character in a novel. That’s what I did to him, which is a very satisfying form of revenge.

Does your ‘cuchillo’ want to affirm freedom against the fanaticism of the genocidal knife?

it is. This book is my weapon. But its purpose is not to offend anyone, but to entertain, to help understand. And answer all those questions which only literature can answer. Challenge, in short, cruelty.

Neither in 1989 nor in 2022 have they been able to silence him. He has written several novels in 34 years of Islamic ‘condemnation’. But is this the book written making the greatest use of freedom?

I’d like to think that yes. But something strange happens: an assassination attempt is an obvious way to silence me, but because of the enormous interest this attack has generated, what they have achieved is the opposite: my voice has more strength, more resonance. . So I can’t deny the satisfaction of that irony.

The ‘knife’ is also writing its own blood.

I like to think that all books come from the blood of writers, but in this case – what we’re going for – it’s literal.

The sense of global threat in the world right now is greater than it was, for example, three decades ago.

There is no doubt that we are living in dangerous times. And extremely violent. It seems that people resort to violence more readily than they did a few years ago. Of course, it is not the same everywhere. But speaking about what I know best, the United States, I can say that murder has become an everyday, almost trivial occurrence there. A very American way to experience violence. I know what I’m talking about. Consider a youth who grows up in an environment of extreme violence, where the possibility of murder is considered natural. He doesn’t come from anywhere. There is a serious problem regarding the use of weapons in America. Many citizens handle these every day. And in some cases they shoot children in school, parishioners in church, customers in shopping centers… Shootings can happen in any normal place. And if you grew up in that environment, for example in New Jersey, you might consider this discrepancy as something normal, even natural.

The increase in hate slogans promoted by the extreme right, the extremism of some religious discourses, the constant sense of threat from wars (the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israeli abuses against the civilian population of Gaza…), everything together is a broth. ..

Of course, all this leads to more violence. This permanent unrest brings a terrible message to everyone, but for young people it can do even more harm. I don’t know exactly what’s happening in Spain, but a lot of the mass murders in America that are so disturbing have been committed by youth, even teenagers. We would have fewer problems without such easy access to weapons.

One thing leads to another, what if Donald Trump returns to the White House?

I am one of five people in America who are confident that Trump will lose the election. It is believed that the storm that Trump symbolizes is going to wreak havoc again. It is true that he has a powerful citizen support base, but American elections are not won on popular support alone. Besides, many people also hate it. It’s not as easy as you think. And there are issues on which he has taken a stance that is not favorable to him. For example, the issue of abortion. This is an important and very controversial issue. Due to this issue a large number of people have joined the Democratic Party. This complicates his plans. It seems clear that the female vote, which is very strong, could benefit the Democrats… but don’t trust me because I was sure Hillary Clinton was going to win in 2017.

Censorship and cancellation also gain more force.

I am too old in this debate. Must be able to express any idea. Any. Trying to keep people from saying what we don’t like is ultimately more likely to keep us from saying what we want to say. Censorship is a dangerous path. It concerns me that some people in the new generations don’t value it as much as it deserves. Here in Spain you knew very well what censorship was. Thank God, that phase of yours is over. That’s why you value freedom.

What topics concern you the most?

I worry that young people are moving away from the classic values ​​of freedom. This is generally done, possibly for good reasons.

For example?

Sometimes I hear very young people with strong values ​​defend very favorable advances related to social justice, but suddenly they add to that conviction the need to restrict certain types of speech. That is to say, they put freedom of expression, which is sacred, above their interests. a big mistake. And very common. In any case: I’m about to be 77, so my generation stopped writing the future a long time ago. But I am sure literature is in good hands.

In your book of memoirs, ‘Joseph Anton’ has expressed regret that you were not as sensitive towards the situation that some influential people in the literary world were experiencing in the 90s and 2000s. How did that situation change? Has been?

I don’t want to exaggerate, because I got a lot of support. But it is true that there were people who were very critical and enemies of me. On this occasion I feel more unanimous support. Maybe because I was badly injured. In any case, it is very inspiring to experience togetherness.

Maybe you’ve ever thought: “You bastard, did you see how right I was?”

Well, I guess I was right all along about that.

Do you regret that many people know only because of the danger and attack that Salman Rushdie is?

clear. I have 22 published novels. I have spent most of my life writing. Perhaps those who read ‘Cuchillo’ without knowing my previous books will be curious to know more about what I have written. However I know that the assassination attempt has once again eclipsed my reality as a fiction writer.

This is again surrounded by abundant security equipment. Has the past returned?

Let me tell you that this is not my fault. I think this deployment is excessive. I don’t like living like this. Live like this again.