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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ella Creamer

Salman Rushdie: allow writers to create characters outside of their own experience

Author Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie receiving the peace prize of the German Book Trade in Frankfurt on Sunday. Photograph: Arne Dedert/AP

Salman Rushdie has said that if authors are only allowed to write characters that mirror themselves and their own experiences, “the art of the novel ceases to exist”.

“If we’re in a world where only women can write about women and only people from India can write about people from India and only straight people can write about straight people … then that’s the death of the art,” the novelist said, according to the Times.

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