The filming began not as a public project but as a private record for Rushdie and his wife. It became a daily ritual, something to do besides "just lying there," helping them process and get through an incredibly challenging time together in the hospital.
Despite having intimate, personal footage of his recovery, Rushdie and his wife sought an external director. They recognized their proximity to the traumatic events prevented them from having the objective perspective needed to shape a compelling narrative for a wider audience.
Rushdie expresses ambiguity about the documentary. While believing it's important, he worries it reinforces the "dark, theological" public narrative he has spent most of his career trying to move past, overshadowing the rest of his extensive literary work.
Upon seeing the actual footage of his stabbing, Rushdie realized his memory was inaccurate. He had remembered and even written that he saw his attacker approach and stood still, but the film showed he only saw him at the last moment and was actively trying to escape.
Rushdie rejects the idea that violent, global protests against his novel were a sign of literature's influence. Instead, he sees it as a demonstration of how easily crowds who haven't read the source material can be directed by authority figures to attack a target they don't understand.
In a talk at Google, Rushdie humorously argued for the book's superior technological design. Unlike a laptop, it doesn't lose data when wet, isn't disabled by sand, and—unlike a floppy disk—doesn't become obsolete, making it a remarkably durable and timeless format.
Rushdie and his wife kept their marriage private not by hiding, but by living a normal New York life and choosing not to broadcast it online. This demonstrates that in the digital age, privacy can be achieved through a simple, active choice of non-participation.
Before the fatwa, Rushdie engaged in public debates with critics, which he considered valuable intellectual conversations. He notes the death threat "changed the subject" entirely, cutting off a serious discussion about the book and replacing it with one about murder and international terrorism.