Self Censorship Quotes

• I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.

  Tim Robbins

  Thinking, Self, Enemy

  9 Copy quote

• Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.

  Ai Weiwei

  Self, Way Forward, Insulting

  "Truth to Power". Interview with Simon Kirby, Index on Censorship, www.indexoncensorship.org. May 2008.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Progress, Firsts, Censorship

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more”, p.1156, e-artnow

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Society develops a type of self-censorship, with the knowledge that surveillance exists - a self-censorship that is even expressed when people communicate with each other privately.

  Julian Assange

  Self, People, Surveillance

  "Julian Assange: The Byline Interviews, Part One – ‘The God of Mass Surveillance". Interview with Seung-yoon Lee, www.byline.com. June 11, 2015.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Self-censorship, the most important and most successful form of censorship, is rampant. Debate is identified with dissent, which is in turn identified with disloyalty. There is a widespread feeling that, in this new, open-ended emergency, we may not be able to 'afford' our traditional freedoms.

  Susan Sontag

  Successful, Self, Feelings

  Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.152, Macmillan

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The worst evil is - and that's the product of censorship - is the self-censorship, because that twists spines, that destroys my character because I have to think something else and say something else, I have to always control myself.

  Milos Forman

  Character, Thinking, Self

  The George Washington University Interview, nsarchive2.gwu.edu. January 18, 1997.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• But poets were not considered dangerous and they were advised to exercise self-censorship. At most, poets were requested not to write at all. I took advantage of this negative liberty.

  Eugenio Montale

  Writing, Exercise, Self

  11 Copy quote

• Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

  Salman Rushdie

  Art, Lying, Self

  "I'm returning to India, deal with it - Salman Rushdie to NDTV". Interview with Barkha Dutt, www.ndtv.com. January 25, 2012.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Political writing in our time consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together like the pieces of a child's Meccano set. It is the unavoidable result of self-censorship. To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.

  George Orwell

  Children, Writing, Thinking

  George Orwell (1986). “The complete works of George Orwell”

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Bernardo Bertolucci

  Important, Censorship, Kind

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Scholars, who pride themselves on speaking their minds, often engage in a form of self-censorship which is called "realism." To be "realistic" in dealing with a problem is to work only among the alternatives which the most powerful in society put forth. It is as if we are all confined to a, b, c, or d in the multiple choice test, when we know there is another possible answer. American society, although it has more freedom of expression than most societies in the world, thus sets limits beyond which respectable people are not supposed to think or speak.

  Howard Zinn

  Powerful, Pride, Thinking

  Howard Zinn (2011). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.289, Seven Stories Press

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• You should not be subjected to the pressures, the intimidation, whether by Government or by the private sector, which would force you into self-censorship.

  Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

  Government, Self, Pressure

  "Un Expert on Democracy Highlights Importance of Free Expression, Information". news.un.org. October 28, 2013.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

  Self, Views, Voice

  Interim report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, August 9, 2012.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I saw that publishing all over the world was deeply constrained by self-censorship, economics and political censorship, while the military-industrial complex was growing at a tremendous rate, and the amount of information that it was collecting about all of us vastly exceeded the public imagination.

  Julian Assange

  Military, Self, Imagination

  7 Copy quote

• But it also came at a significant cost for human rights, and today's restricted freedom of expression, self-censorship and stunted multiparty democracy.

  Phil Robertson

  Freedom, Party, Rights

  "Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, 'a true giant of history', dies aged 91" by Kevin Rawlinson, Kirsten Han, www.theguardian.com. March 22, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't engage in self-censorship. But I do change everybody to have red hair in the last draft. ... If you give people red hair when in real life they haven't got red hair, I've noticed they don't recognize themselves, anyway.

  Carol Bly

  Real, Hair, Self

  4 Copy quote

• I have a really good idea of who my readers are and always write with a sensitivity to my audience. I use the F word when necessary, but there are words I won't use, mainly because I don't like them. I don't write about body parts when I write about sex. It's not about the physiological, it's more important for teens to read about the emotional aspects. I do think there are times when self-censorship is important.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Sex, Writing, Emotional

  Source: ncac.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A dreary censorship, and self-censorship, has been imposed on books by the centralization of the book industry.

  Erica Jong

  Book, Self, Censorship

  Erica Jong (1994). “The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller”, p.36, Grove Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Self-censorship, whether known or unknown, is an unwelcome brake on creativity; it stifles self-expression and hence prevents a work from reaching the heights of great art.

  Semir Zeki

  Art, Creativity, Self

  5 Copy quote

• SeLF censorsHIP?
  Not my strong suit...I dont want to be a total d o u c h e b a g , but a little bit of one.

  Misha Collins

  Strong, Self, Want

  12 Copy quote

• Sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable. I remember at the very beginning actually, the first person I had to convince was myself really because there's a self-censorship. When everybody says 'we don't do silent movies anymore,' you agree with everybody, and you say 'yeah, you're right.' It was a fantasy.

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Thinking, Self, People

  "Director Michel Hazanavicius THE ARTIST Interview". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. November 26, 2011.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source