Jane Smiley Quotes

If you're politically correct, chances are you're not coming to one of my shows. I get to go onstage and say things that everybody thinks all the time, but can't say out loud.

Society needs a couple of vents that say what you're not supposed to say.

I do walk with a bit of a swagger. I do swear a lot. And people are going to be offended by that. But in this PC world, you can't be honest.

Science fiction was one of those places, particularly during the McCarthy era, where you could write whatever you wanted because it was beneath contempt. They didn't bother censoring it.

I think good books have to make a few people angry.

The major poets of New Jersey have all suffered, whether it's Whitman, who lost his job for 'Leaves of Grass,' or William Carlos Williams, who was called a communist, or Ginsberg, whose 'Howl' was prosecuted, or myself. If you practise poetry the way I think it needs to be done, you're going to put yourself in jeopardy.

If something or someone is being banned, I want to be among the first to know about it.

If you are not offending people who ought to be offended, you're doing something wrong.

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.

The reason people get afraid of writing real, honest journalism and fiction, and the reason corrupted people and demagogues are afraid of journalism and fiction and poetry across the world, is because it is a subversive form.

Long before Donald Trump came down the escalator, Kanye West was public enemy No. 1 for simply trying to tell the truth to people about things that were going on, so I'm unsurprised that he supports me and my ideas and me just thinking freely.

I applaud Chomsky's willingness to take a stand.

When you started looking at the life of Tolstoy, there was so much passion and anger and drama surrounding him.

'The Handmaid's Tale' will blow people away.

At the drop of a hat, people have begun to take offence. You can't write, paint, make films without worrying about some faction or other whose 'sentiments' will be hurt!

If you look at things historically, Kanye West has really represented the battering ram against political correctness.

Provocative... I used to be defensive about it, but in the end, I realised it's exactly right. It's what we're trying to do - to provoke thought and discussion and, you know, shake people up to start thinking about things in a different way. I'm interested in messing with what they think is the norm.

'Raaz Reboot' doesn't have extreme boldness, but I was apprehensive about the kissing scenes.

I don't think the choice of launching Sunny Leone as an actor in Hindi cinema was that radical a decision.

Very few teachers or leaders in my small Michigan community ever discussed the issue of 'The Catcher in the Rye,' and certainly no one came to the 1951 Novel's defense.

He was talking about the sign that said 'THE COMPLICATED FUTILITY OF IGNORANCE.' 'All knew was that I didn't want my daughter or anybody's child to see a message that negative every time she comes into the library,' he said. 'And then I found out it was you who was responsible for it.' 'What's so negative about it?' I said. 'What could be a more negative word than "futility"?' he said. '"Ignorance,"' I said.

Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.

Fahrenheit 9/11: The temperature where freedom burns!

Whatever I wrote was heretical. It offended the editors of the women's magazines.

Now Ive got this moniker that Im the foot-in-mouth gal, and I keep thinking, In what way? Because I said something you dont agree with? Because I said something you dont like? Im just telling you my opinion. I hate the idea that I cant be honest about how I feel about things because its going to piss somebody off who feels differently. That seems preposterous to me.