Brendan O'Connor
Salman Rushdie - “It wasn’t true, I never lived in Bono’s back garden!”
13 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Now I'm joined by one of the world's greatest writers, Salman Rushdie. Welcome. Thank you. How nice to be here. Or should I call you Free Speech Barbie? What's this about you not wanting to be Free Speech Barbie anymore? I mean, if you're not Free Speech Barbie, then who is?
I don't know. Maybe somebody else could apply for the job. I just, you know, I'm in favour of free speech. That's my position. But I've talked about it so much that I'd sooner just talk about my work, you know.
OK, well then, let's talk about your book, The Eleventh Hour, is the first fiction you've written since a man tried to murder you and nearly succeeded in 2022. Is it hard to go back to, I won't call it the frivolity, but is it hard to go back to making up stories after you've literally stared death in the face?
Well, it was hard. I mean, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, I couldn't even think about fiction. But once I'd dealt with that by writing The Memoir Knife, I mean, even before the memoir came out, it was just like a little door in my head opened up and the story started coming out again. And I was incredibly relieved that they did, because I was for a while worried that they might not.
But here they are again. Yeah. Why do you think they might have stopped? Well, just because there was this other huge thing to deal with, you know, and it was just taking up all my available space thinking space. And I knew that the only way to get past it was to go through it. And that's what I did by writing the memoir.
But really, it was almost joyful to get back to fiction because, you know, even though I've written my share of nonfiction, I think of myself as a fiction writer. That's why I became a writer.
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Chapter 2: What does Salman Rushdie say about his recovery from the knife attack?
I became a writer to tell stories, to make things up. And it's nice to be doing it again.
The interesting thing is the book is very funny. Did your sense of humour remain intact despite everything? Well, it seems to have, doesn't it?
Writers are, to some degree, at the mercy of their gift. And if your gift includes humour, then it just comes out that way. And I also wanted the book to be joyful. And even though it deals with some pretty dark subjects like The End of Life. I didn't want it to be one of those books which say, you know, oh my God, we're all going to die, because we all know that.
I wanted to be more playful than that and more antic and to have some fun with it.
Yeah, and it is fun. Was laughter an important part of your recovery?
I think laughter is a really important part of anybody's, you know, well-being in the world. And I've always thought my family is a very funny family. You know, I mean, my sister's very funny. My children are very funny. We all use laughter to get through the day.
Yeah. You see, some people can think, okay, he's written a funny book. It's not a serious book then. But actually, laughter is one of the serious things, isn't it? It's important.
Of course it is. Laughter is, you know, it's easier to make people cry than to make people laugh.
Yeah, yeah. And it's actually really hard to make books funny, I often think.
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Chapter 3: How did laughter play a role in Salman Rushdie's healing process?
No, not a lot. You know, I know there's this legend around.
You were living in Bono's garden.
Yeah, no, I mean, unfortunately, that's a legend. I mean, you know, he's a friend and I did visit him a couple of times, but it was like for two days at a time. I wasn't in residence, Shea, Bono and Ali.
Yeah, OK, OK, OK.
I'm afraid it's amazing what legs that legend has had. I mean, people still, I hear you are still asking me about it.
Well, it's an appealing kind of story, isn't it? It's a nice idea. Well, if only it was true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Will you be catching up with Bono when you're at Dorky? Well, I hope so. Yeah, I mean, I think they're going to be there. So listen, let's go back to the book a minute.
Two of the stories in the book, and I know you will have noticed this yourself, Leigh and also the musician of Kahani, they involve revenge. So then obviously the question is, was revenge on your mind or in your body somewhere after the murder attempt when you went back to write?
You know, I only noticed that two of the stories were like that after I finished the book. When I was writing the stories, I was just following the logic of the story.
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Salman Rushdie share about his new book, 'The Eleventh Hour'?
I mean, one of the things in this book of stories that I got very interested in was the idea of the unfinished story. Because I thought, you know, in many ways, all of us, all of us who are alive on the earth, we're all unfinished stories. None of us knows how it's going to turn out. None of us knows how long we've got or what the ending will be like.
And it can be a better ending than we fear, you know. So the world, life is long and the world changes. And despair is too easy. It's much easier to think that the future can be made by us and it can be made in a better way. And to work towards that. And that's how I think. And I also think the act of writing is an act which requires optimism.
You sit alone in a room, sometimes for years, just with you and your idea trying to make something in the hope that people will respond well to it. And then you put it out in the world and you find out if people respond to it or not. But to make it requires the hopefulness that it will find its readers and it will do well.
Chapter 5: How does Salman Rushdie view the concept of revenge in his stories?
So writing is an act of optimism and very hard to do it without that fuel.
You're right. Yeah, good point. Well, look, it was an act of optimism worth doing. It's a terrific read. It's called The Eleventh Hour. And you'll be at Docky Book Festival next Sunday, June 21st. I think you've sold out, actually, as in your event has, not you, artistically. There's lots of other events over the weekend.
And your wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, will be talking about her memoir, The Flower Bearers, as well. And people can go to dockybookfestival.org for more details. By the way, I believe your wife has called you an idiot for not reading the books of Clare Keegan. Have you remedied that yet? No.
No, I'm looking forward to remedying it. My idiocy remains intact at the moment. Salman Rushdie. I hear that she's very, very good. I'm looking forward to reading it.
Yeah, yeah. You'd get most of them done on the plane journey over. They're short, but deadly. Okay, Salman Rushdie, always a pleasure. Thank you so much. Enjoy docking. Thanks, great to talk to you.
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