Rushdie was stabbed on stage during a literary event in western New York state.
Rushdie was going to speak at the Chautauqua Institution, which is about 90 minutes from the city of Buffalo.
Rushdie and an interviewer were attacked by a male suspect who ran up on to the stage.
Rushdie was flown to an area hospital after he was stabbed in the neck.
They said that Rushdie's interviewer suffered a minor head injury.
A state trooper assigned to the event took the suspect into custody. Information about the attacker was not available.
Rushdie was coming back for a discussion about the US as an asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creativity. He was joined on stage by a man named Henry Reese.
The institution started in 1874 as a place to teach Methodist Sunday school teachers and has since become the center of a wider educational movement. It brings together different religions. On Friday, a representative from the company could not be reached.
New York governor Kathy Hochul said that it happened at a place where the most pre-eminent speakers, politicians and intellectuals come together to talk.
Hochul said that he was trying to speak in the last hour before he was attacked.
A case will be brought in that part of the state if the governor provides more information on the identity of the person who committed the crime.
Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses has caused controversy because of its depiction of Mohammed. Rushdie's book was banned in Iran, and the supreme leader ordered Muslims to kill him.
Rushdie hid following the death threat. He was living with armed policemen and had a different name.
Iran's current supreme leader was temporarily banned from using the internet after he commented on the fatwa against Rushdie.
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