Rushdie, whose “epic tale” of a 14th-century woman who defies a patriarchal world to rule a city hits shelves in the United States today, said the attack had scarred him mentally.
“There is such a thing as PTSD, you know,” the 75-year-old told “New Yorker” magazine in his first interview since the Aug 12 stabbing at a conference in Chautauqua in upstate New York.
“I’ve found it very, very difficult to write. I sit down to write, and nothing happens. I write, but it’s a combination of blankness and junk, stuff that I write and that I delete the next day. I’m not out of that forest yet, really.”
The award-winning novelist, a naturalised American who has lived in New York for 20 years, lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand, his agent said in October.
Rushdie told journalist David Remnick that “big injuries are healed” but he was not able to type very well because of a lack of feeling in some fingertips.
“I’ve been better. But, considering what happened, I’m not so bad,” said the Indian-born author, describing himself as “lucky”.
Rushdie lived in hiding for years after Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered his killing for what he deemed the blasphemous nature of “The Satanic Verses”, published in 1988.
The attack shocked the west but was welcomed by extremists in Muslim countries such as Iran and Pakistan.
In the interview, Rushdie was asked whether he thought it had been a mistake to let his guard down in recent decades.
“I’m asking myself that question, and I don’t know the answer to it,” he said.
“Three-quarters of my life as a writer has happened since the fatwa. In a way, you can’t regret your life.”
Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey with roots in Lebanon, was arrested immediately after the attack and pleaded not guilty to assault charges.
“I blame him,” said Rushdie, simply.
“Victory City” purports to be a translation of a historical epic originally written in Sanskrit. It’s his 15th novel and was penned before the attack.
The much-anticipated work tells the tale of young orphan Pampa Kampana who is endowed by a goddess with magical powers and founds the city, in modern-day India, of Bisnaga, which translates as Victory City.