Nelson Algren Quotes

I hate censorship, man. I really do.

We can't let censorship take over.

I mean, believe me, I'm not for censorship.

Let me be clear: I am not an advocate of censorship.

Censors, the whole idea of it, is so childish. You feel like you're talking to hall monitors in school again.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree.

Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.

Censorship of ideas or images or words is wrong.

I'm a free speech bigot. I don't like censorship; I just don't think it's a good thing.

It's very difficult to have just a little bit of censorship.

Every censorship, however good its intent, degenerates inevitably into tyranny.

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

Those who want to burn books are either afraid of the ideas contained within the covers or they haven't the courage to stand up for the views which they themselves profess to hold.

It is pretty safe to assume that any given censor is a fool. The very fact that he is a censor indicates that.

I am sure that as soon as speech was invented, efforts to suppress and control it began, and that process of suppression continues unabated.

The imprisoning of a writer is the same as the burning of a book.

Once you get used to censorship, sometimes you self-censor.

I prefer a little free speech to no free speech at all; but how many have free speech or the chance or the mind for it; and is not free speech here as elsewhere clamped down on in ratio of its freedom and danger?

Persecution for opinion is the master vice of society.

Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds.

I am still against any kind of censorship. It's a subject in my life that has been very important.

I am seriously opposed to censorship of any sort.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.