Banned Books Week: The Quotes!

In honor of Banned Books Week and the fight against censorship, here are some of my favorite author quotes about reading, censorship, and books.

Let me know what your favorites are and leave them in the comments!

Also don't forget to check out the Banned Books Week Hop, and enter to win some great prizes!

“And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”  ― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

“There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.” ― Mary Wortley Montagu

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”  ― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

"[D]on’t ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that’s what they’re there for. Use your library). Don’t apologize to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend’s copy. What’s important to me is that people read the books and enjoy them, and that, at some point in there, the book was bought by someone. And that people who like things, tell other people. The most important thing is that people read… ”  ― Neil Gaiman

“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” 
 ― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel
“My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn’t have any excuse to be stupid.”  ― Joan Bauer, Rules of the Road

“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…”  ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

And finally, from the classic literary standard on book burning and book censorship,
“The books are to remind us what asses and fool we are. They’re Caesar’s praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, “Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.” Most of us can’t rush around, talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don’t ask for guarantees. And don’t look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.”  ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

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