Sir Salman Rushdie has said he will never be “reconciled” with the life-changing injuries he suffered in a knife attack.
The 2022 attack on the Booker-prize winning author at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state left him blind in one eye.
US citizen Hadi Matar was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in February and sentenced to 25 years in prison in May.
Sir Salman told Tatler: “I thought he was very unimpressive, this little squirt.
“It made me feel contempt, and then it made me think, well, unimpressive little jerks can kill you. Which he almost did, and he didn’t look at me at any point.”
The writer gave evidence during the trial and he told the magazine: “By the time the trial came about, it was almost three years since the attack.
“That’s a long time to digest and think about and recover from something. So I just answered the questions I was asked and went home.”
However, he said the physical effects of the attack are still very present.
He said: “The fact that losing an eye and having a hand that doesn’t work properly is something you notice all the time.
“You wake up in the morning and you think, ‘F***, I can’t see out of my right eye’. I don’t think I can get reconciled to that. You just have to deal with it. I don’t think, ‘Oh, it’s fine. I’ve got another eye’.”
Despite this, Sir Salman said has no plans to stop working, adding: “I keep thinking of things to write, so I’d better live long enough to write them.”
The full interview is in the December issue of Tatler, available via digital download and on newsstands from October 30.
