10 Questions for Salman Rushdie

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THERE'S A LINE ABOUT KLINGONS ON THE VERY FIRST PAGE OF SHALIMAR. AREN'T YOU WORRIED THAT A POP REFERENCE LIKE THAT WILL DATE THE BOOK?

It might. You never know what lasts. A novel, I think, is partly about the contemporary and partly about the eternal, and it's the balance of that that's difficult to achieve. I have a suspicion that Klingons might be more enduring than we suspect.

SPEAKING OF KLINGONS, WASN'T YOUR WIFE [ACTRESS AND MODEL PADMA LAKSHMI] ON AN EPISODE OF STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE?

Yes, she was. She was an alien empress of most of the universe, I think. The episode was all right. Next Generation was the one that I liked best.

ME TOO, BUT I'M SURE YOUR WIFE WAS MAGNIFICENT.

Yes. She was born to be empress of the universe.