#books

The last time that I consciously wrote anything to 'save the honor of the Left', as I rather pompously put it, was my little book on the crookedness and cowardice and corruption (to put it no higher) of Clinton. I used leftist categories to measure him, in other words, and to show how idiotic was the belief that he was a liberal's champion. Again, more leftists than you might think were on my side or in my corner, and the book was published by Verso, which is the publishing arm of the New Left Review. However, if a near-majority of leftists and liberals choose to think that Clinton was the target of a witch-hunt and the victim of 'sexual McCarthyism', an Arkansan Alger Hiss in other words, you become weary of debating on their terms and leave them to make the best of it. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#arkansas #bill-clinton #corruption #cowardice #debate

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you. ↗

— Harold Bloom

#solitude #pleasure

For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. ↗

— Elie Wiesel

#history #philosophy #duty

I was thinking, "So, I’m Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now. ↗

— Robert Graves

#claudius #emperor #robert-graves #roman #roman

I have a realistic grasp of my own strengths and weaknesses. My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind… and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. That’s why I read so much, Jon Snow. ↗

— George R.R. Martin

#intellect #reading #strength #tyrion-lannister #intellect

It hardly matters why a library is destroyed: every banning, curtailment, shredding, plunder or loot gives rise (at least as a ghostly presence) to a louder, clearer, more durable library of the banned, looted, plundered, shredded or curtailed. ↗

— Alberto Manguel

#banning #book-burning #books #censorship #library

Young minds - young brains - need stories and ideas like the ones in those [censored and banned] books in order to grow. They need ideas that you disagree with. They need ideas that I disagree with. Or they'll never be able to figure out what ideas they believe in. ↗

— Lev Grossman

#censorship #growth #ideas #young-minds #censorship

It's red hot, mate. I hate to think of this sort of book getting in the wrong hands. As soon as I've finished this, I shall recommend they ban it. ↗

— Tony Hancock

#censorship #hancock #censorship

We knew the difference between that which cannot be expressed and that which must. We understood that while words are a path taking us only so far, they are a requisite to the journey. They are like road maps that show us which way to go. ↗

— Laura Bynum

#censorship #words #censorship

There are no wrong books. What's wrong is the fear of them. ↗

— Bernard Malamud

#censorship #fear #censorship