A censor is an expert in cutting remarks. A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.

Every era puts invisible shackles on those who have lived through it, and I can only dance in my chains

The struggle for a free intelligence has always been a struggle between the ironic and the literal mind.

It is really exhausting to live in a dictatorship of 'Me', which is basically a tyranny of others.

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

I also hold very strong personal convictions about censorship. I don't believe in forbidden knowledge.

When one writer tries to silence another, he silences every writer-and in the end he also silences himself.

Books can be burned,” croaked Black.“They have a way of rising from the ashes,” said Andreus.

What is called ‘offence to a community’ is more often than not actually a struggle within communities.

Libraries should be open to all - except the censor.[Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]

Beyond all the other reasons not to do it, free speech assaults always backfire: they transform bigots into martyrs.

Civil government cannot let any group ride roughshod over others simply because their consciences tell them to do so.

There was hardly an eminent writer in Paris who was unacquainted with the inside of the Conciergerie or the Bastille.

Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.

The author determines that the bitterest struggles are for one side of the truth to the suppression of the other side.