Shoojit Sircar Quotes

All literatures can have political uses and misuses. Sometimes politics can enhance, sometimes it can get in the way of imaginative literature...

If you are a writer from Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, you don't have the luxury of being apolitical. You can't say, 'That's politics. I'm just doing my work.'

I think when you're in my position as an artist, I can say what I want and talk about the issues that matter.

A lot of artists say, I'm not political. People are afraid of this word.

Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers.

There were a lot of people dreaming about making films, and they would finance maybe 6 films a year. Because they were funded by the government, the films sort-of had to deal with serious social issues - and, as a result, nobody went to see those films.

As you know from reading many of these Negro writers, we don't deal too much with the discussion of democracy and what it means and how improvisation fits in all that.

Previously the same Polish audiences would have been pressured into seeing cinema made for adults, films made by us about those spheres of life that were significant for us and which should be significant for our society.

I am not brave enough to not pay my income tax and risk going to jail. But I can say rather freely what I want to say with my art.

The aftermath of the war is what inspired us to write many of our plays. The whole reason for our writing Inherit the Wind was that we were appalled at the blacklisting. We were appalled at thought control.

It seems disingenuous to ask a writer why she, or he, is writing about a violent subject when the world and history are filled with violence.

This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.

Obviously I don't want to make a film that offends people, but the whole world is so politically correct - I'm not going to not do something because it may be politically incorrect. At some point, the metaphors and allegories break down. They disappear, and you just have science fiction.

With the war and everything that's going on, unless you're Susan Sarandon, the best route is to keep your mouth shut. For me it is, anyway!

I personally think artists should criticize the government as much as possible since, unlike politicians, they do not have to obtain votes.

When censorship is intelligent, it will stop a film before it is made. If not, it is too late.

Freedom of the press and a free society either prosper together or perish together.

Our press has too much freedom …. Democracy is a very lovely thing for a developed people.

If you have an open society that what happens—people say things and they criticize you.

Self-censorship as a result of intimidation or social pressures, sometimes referred to as “political correctness”, constitutes a serious obstacle to the proper functioning of democracy. It is important to hear the views of all persons including the “silent majority”, and to give heed to the weaker voices.

Political speech is indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation. By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.

How is it reasonable that in a country purporting to be a democracy, I am not permitted to speak freely? Why, as a politician, should I be banned from expressing political opinions? Why, as a student of history, can I not present the facts as I see them, without fear of reprisal?

I don't get all these pop stars who sit on the fence when they're asked for an opinion. People are scared of speaking out. They're too worried about the consequences - like they might lose a few fans if they give a serious opinion.

I don't want the government to be censoring people, I don't think there should be censoring boards, but I think that means that we the artists need to be very careful about what we're putting out and what were saying and how we're saying it. And I don't think we're being as careful as we should be.

Democrats need to value free speech and we should not be intimidated into giving an inch of it away.