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Quote: Salman Rushdie

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Quotes writing culture storytelling humanism literature

Man is the animal that tells stories about himself to himself.

Salman Rushdie, Lecture at the University of Iowa (March 2004)

It’s been years since I sat in that lecture hall, but Rushdie’s description of humans as storytelling creatures still gets me with it’s perfect simplicity. I think that was the first time I heard someone express this notion so clearly. I wrote this quote in my journal that night, and I revisit it often.