We live in far too permissive a society. Never before has pornography been this rampant. And those films are so badly lit!

If they didn't show it on the screen, most people would never know about oral sex.

I hate to think of this sort of book getting into the wrong hands. As soon as I've finished this, I shall recommend they ban it.

Censorship has been my best press agent my whole life.

People have a right to be shocked; the mention of unmentionable things is a kind of participation in them.

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail.

Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.

A book is somehow sacred. A dictator can kill and maim people, can sink to any kind of tyranny and only be hated, but when books are burned the ultimate in tyranny has happened. This we cannot forgive.

Literature is one of the few areas left where black and white feel some identity of purpose; we all struggle under censorship.