Salman Rushdie: Author believed fatwa was old and life relatively normal - BBC

Watch: Video shows the moments after author Salman Rushdie was attacked.

Salman Rushdie said he felt his life was "relatively normal" in an interview conducted just two weeks before he was stabbed on stage in the US.

Mr Rushdie, 75, has been put on a ventilator, is unable to speak, and may lose one eye, his agent said.

The magazine described how Mr Rushdie had arrived for the interview with no security at all, appeared relaxed as he said the Iranian fatwa was decades old.

Police detained a suspect named as Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, New Jersey, shortly after he ran onto the stage and attacked Mr Rushdie and an interviewer at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York state.

Mr Matar was arrested for attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree, said police.

Mr Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and in the abdomen, authorities said.

Video shows moments after Salman Rushdie attack

Salman Rushdie: The writer who emerged from hiding

Salman Rushdie: The writer who emerged from hiding

Salman Rushdie: The writer who emerged from hiding