“The point about fascism, in this case religious fascism, is that one of the things it mosts hates is pleasure. That's to say - what did the Taliban ban? They banned movie theaters. They banned music. They banned acting. Hugging and kissing. They were banning pleasure, the war is against pleasure...

The point is: puritanism is always anti-pleasure. And so we need to fight it by building, preserving, and maintaining a world in which boys and girls can hold hands, where you can listen to music, where you can go to movies. In which you can do the things that make life rich.”

Listen to Salman Rushdie talk to Brian Koppleman about the war for pleasure at 58:20 of their interview.

When you have an hour to spare, listen to the full interview, as it is a brilliant window into love, magic, and the creative life.

And for god's sake, go make some pleasure today.