Salman Rushdie: "I want to write about the things that make us human"

Three thousand people at Coliseu to hear Salman Rushdie

The session opened to the strains of Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, chosen by moderator Alberto Manguel. The argentine essayist asked Salman Rushdie whether he recognised the song’s lyrics, to which the author immediately replied that he did. However, when invited to sing, he promptly declined, prompting laughter from the audience - an early indication of the wit and good humour that would characterise the conversation throughout the evening.

It was an opening that led naturally into a journey through Rushdie’s childhood memories, his very first short story, appropriately titled Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and his relationship with both his father and the world of books.

Moving seamlessly from a quotation by Hemingway to jokes about Shakespeare, and even drawing a comparison between One Thousand and One Nights and the films of Quentin Tarantino, Rushdie quickly won over the Coliseu audience.

On stage, Salman Rushdie spoke candidly about his writing process, the unexpected discoveries that emerge through research, and the way he brings together different worlds while giving free rein to his imagination.

Asked about the relationship between literature and politics, the writer referred to Jane Austen, arguing that today "the distance between public and private life has almost disappeared". He concluded by saying that he does not wish to "write controversial fiction", but rather to "write about the things that make us human".

With readings by António Durães, the event demonstrated exactly why Rushdie remains such a compelling speaker. Before an audience of three thousand people hanging on his every word, the 60-minute conversation seemed to pass in an instant. "It felt like 20 minutes, I could have listened to him all night," was heard from audience members as they left the venue.

Before bringing the evening to a close, Rushdie raised a glass of Port wine in farewell, a fitting final flourish that was rewarded with a prolonged standing ovation.