Has Salman Rushdie changed after his stabbing? Well, he feels about 25, the author tells AP

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly two years after the shocking knife attack that nearly killed him, Salman Rushdie appears both changed and very much the same. He is thinner, paler, scarred and blind in his right eye. He tells The Associated Press of “iron” in his soul and the struggle to write fiction as he concentrates on promoting his current book, “Knife,” a memoir about his stabbing that he decided to write if only because he had no choice. But he remains engaging, articulate and uncensored. He has been, and still is an optimist, joking that optimism is a “disease” he has never been cured of.