Author Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and is able to talk again, a day after being stabbed several times.
The celebrated author, 75, was attacked while speaking at an event in New York state and was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
British-American writer Aatish Taseer said, in a since-deleted tweet, that the 75-year-old was "off the ventilator and talking (and joking).
His agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed the positive news to US media, but had previously warned the author may lose an eye.
Mr Rushdie has faced years of death threats ever since the 1981 publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims see as blasphemous.
The man charged over the attack pleaded not guilty to attempted murder on Saturday, and has been remanded in custody without bail.
Hadi Matar, 24, is accused of running onto the stage and stabbing Mr Rushdie at least 10 times in the face, neck and abdomen.
Following the attack, Mr Wylie said Mr Rushdie had suffered severed nerves in one arm, damage to his liver, and would likely lose an eye.
Fellow writers and scholars tweeted their relief at finding out the novelist was now able to talk.
Yesterday Matar appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands cuffed in front of him.
A judge ordered him to be held without bail after district attorney Jason Schmidt told her Matar took steps to purposely put himself in a position to harm Sir Salman, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early with a fake ID.
"This was a targeted, unprovoked, pre-planned attack on Mr Rushdie," Mr Schmidt said.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone said the authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge, while leaving him "hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks".
"He has that constitutional right of presumed innocence," Mr Barone added.
Sir Salman was stabbed at least once in the neck and once in the abdomen, according to police, before he was taken to hospital.
Sir Salman's publisher Penguin Random House said they were "deeply shocked and appalled" by the incident.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right we should never cease to defend".
He added: "Right now my thoughts are with his loved ones. We are all hoping he is okay." Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said: "Salman Rushdie has long embodied the struggle for liberty and freedom against those who seek to destroy them.
"This cowardly attack on him yesterday is an attack on those values. The whole Labour Party is praying for his full recovery."
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said: "Today, the country and the world witnessed a reprehensible attack against the writer Salman Rushdie. This act of violence is appalling.
"All of us in the Biden-Harris administration are praying for his speedy recovery.
We are thankful to good citizens and first responders for helping Mr Rushdie so quickly after the attack and to law enforcement for its swift and effective work, which is ongoing."
The novelist was forced into hiding for nearly 10 years after The Satanic Verses was published in 1981. Many Muslims reacted with fury to it, arguing that the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad was a grave insult to their faith.
He faced death threats and the then-Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa - or decree - calling for Mr Rushdie's assassination, placing a $3m (£2.5m) bounty on the author's head.
The fatwa remains active, and although Iran's government has distanced itself from Mr Khomeini's decree, a quasi-official Iranian religious foundation added a further $500,000 to the reward in 2012.
