and on the flight up there, i thought, chautauqua is a really small town.t was like 5 minutes drive. i thought, let's go to the jail. >> jon: [laughs] i just -- it blows my -- but you didn't have a desire necessarily to see this individual. >> no, i just wanted to see the jail. [laughter] you get there, it is a really boring jail. [laughter] it is a little cellblock and a wall with some barbed wire. but i thought, you know, he is in there, i am out here. that feels good. >> jon: you win. >> what happened is, a weird thing happened. my feet started dancing. >> jon: you were dancing. >> no, my feet were dancing. [laughter] >> jon: but what does that look like? shimmying but the body stays? >> eliza said, stop doing that. >> jon: i can't imagine, this gentleman glancing out the window for no apparent reason, going, is that the guy -- >> yeah, and he is dancing in the car park. [laughs] >> jon: you talk a lot about your thoughts about this gentleman and whether you wanted to confront him. there is actually a really wonderful section of it, almost like a socrati

and i had to go to chautauqua, and i said to my wife, eliza, i said, you know, i don't want to go. >>ream. and then i thought, don't be silly. it's a dream. >> reporter: salman rushdie, one of his generation's most acclaimed writers, had been invited to the tranquil town of chautauqua on lake erie to speak about a subject he knows all too well -- the importance of protecting writers whose lives are under threat. >> did you have any anxiety being in such a public space? >> not really because in the more than 20 years that i've been living in america, i've done a lot of these things. >> you haven't had security around you or close protect detail for a long time? >> long time. but, you know, what happens in many places that you go and lecture is that they're used to having a certain degree of security, venue security. in this case, there wasn't any. >> the irony, of course, is you were there to talk about writers in danger. >> yeah, exactly. and the need for writers from other countries to have safe spaces in america amongst other places. and, yeah, it just turned out to be not a safe sp

salmon rushdie, one of his generation's most acclaimed writers, had been invited to the town of chautauqua close to lake erie to speak about a subject he knows all too well. >> the importance of protecting writers whose lives are under threat did you have any anxiety it being in such a public space? >> not really because in the more than 20 years that i've been living in america, i've done a lot of these things, you haven't had security around you of closing traction detail for a long time? long time, but you know what happens in many places that you go in lecture is that they're used to having a certain degree of security, venue, security in this case, there wasn't any, the irony of course, is you were there to talk about writers and danger yeah, exactly and the need for writers from other countries to have safe spaces in america, amongst other places. and then yeah, it just turned out not to be a safe space for me. >> for years. no place was safe for salman rushdie who sprawling 600 page novel, the satanic verses, offended some muslims for its depiction of the prophet muhammad ron's, i h

doubt there are many, about a year and a half ago, you were attacked on stage at an event at the chautauquahow are you feeling these days? >> salman: i'm surprisingly well. [applause] thank you. i think that technical term is that i'm a medical miracle. >> stephen: that's how close you came to death? >> salman: yeah. they initially thought probably they weren't going to be able to save me but unfortunately they were wrong. [applause] >> stephen: a year and half is really not that long for something as traumatic as that. i know you've written a book about the event called "knife: meditations after an attempted murder." before we get into the book, i'm just curious. would you mind describing the attack from your own point of view? >> salman: yeah. i mean, i was on stage with a colleague ironically enough to talk about protecting people in danger in various countries in the world and the person who wasn't protected this writer. a man ran out of the audience and basically stuck a knife in me 14 times. 14 times. he actually looked a little bit like a very famous tennis player. it was like being

jeffrey: the knife attack, 15 stabs, came at the chautauqua institution in western new york, during ac talk on, of all things, the importance of keeping writers safe. it left salman rushdie near death. he would lose the use of his right eye and suffer numerous other injuries to his hand, and, chest and abdomen, , and undergo multiple surgeries, numerous setbacks, a painful, slow recovery. when he decided to write about it, he says now, the first word that came: the title, knife. >> at its most basic, it's the story of a knife attack, you know? but then i came to think of it in another way, a kind of metaphorical way. i came to think like language is a kind of knife, you know, it's a kind of also a sort of tool which you could use to cut through things to the truth. and i thought, well, that's my knife. you know, i don't, i don't, and if you're going to be in a knife fight, you may as well have a knife. so i think in a funny way, i came to think that the book itself is a knife. but it's my knife. it's a way of fighting back. jeffrey: was this one harder to to write because it was so ,

premonitions and you did have something that we might call a premonition or a dream just before going to chautauqua, just before going to make this speed, we've asked you to read just a little bit of that prof yeah. >> i had a i had a nightmare two nights before i flew churches. i had a dream about being attacked by a man with a spirit a gladiator in a roman amphitheater there was an audience roaring for blood i was rolling about on the ground trying to escape the gladiators, downward thrusts. and screaming it was not the first time i'd had such a dream on to earlier occasions as my dream self rolled frantically around, my actual sleeping self also screaming through its body. my body out of bed and i work as i crashed painfully to the bedroom floor so those are those two times this time your wife woke you up and you didn't crash to the floor, but you said to her, i don't want to go out, want to say it gives me chills that yeah, i really i was very spooked by the dream and that's what by initial response was to say, look, i don't want to go, and then i woke up a bit more and i thought really we don'