George Pelecanos Quotes

I was an early reader, and my grandmother, who as a child had been forbidden to read by a father who believed books to be frivolous time-wasters, delighted in putting her favorite volumes into her grandchildren's hands.

Unfortunately, the elimination of incentives such as parole, good time credits and funding for college courses, means that fewer inmates participate in and excel in literacy, education, treatment and other development programs.

Sixty per cent of people entering prison today are illiterate.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.

Reading develops cognitive skills. It trains our minds to think critically and to question what you are told. This is why dictators censor or ban books. It's why it was illegal to teach slaves to read. It's why girls in developing countries have acid thrown in their faces when they walk to school.

My first book, 'Running Loose', was censored back in 1983 or '84. Every book I've written since has been censored somewhere.

When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.

It is hardly fair to accuse us of ignorance when it was made a crime under the former order of things to learn enough about letters to even read the Word of God.

Local school boards may not remove books from the school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.

The problem with being an avid reader in China is that there were few books to be read.

Would you approve of your young sons, young daughters—because girls can read as well as boys—reading this book? Is it a book that you would have lying around in your own house? Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?

With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one — but no one at all — can tell you what to read and when and how.

If you live in a country where there is nothing comparable to free information, often literature becomes the only way to be more or less informed about what's going on.

[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read.

Do I think that, when we're teaching a book at school, should we go through a myriad list of trigger warnings? No. But I understand why people desire it.

It's simple: put the money into schools and not prisons.

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

I love to read because I know that for a long time ancestors weren't allowed to. I love to write. Because for a long time my people weren't 'allowed' to. So I'm going to write my books, my apps and tell my stories.

Young adult author Richelle Mead holds the distinction to perhaps be the only author ever to have a book banned... before it was even written.

I have not understood till date why we censor adult films. If someone over 18 can get married, produce children and drive cars, why can't they watch a movie?

Attica. The name itself has long signified resistance to prison abuse and state violence.

Cripes Miss Wilcox, they're not guns,' I said. No, they're not Mattie, they're books. And a hundred times more dangerous.

Censorship does not interfere with the constitutional rights of every American to sit alone in a dark room in the nude and cuss.