Andrew Heller Quotes

“Word-banning seems to be a trend of late. It's become fashionable to try to ban words we're uncomfortable with, which you really can't do in the first place. You can no more ban a word than you can ban the air. In fact, language is a lot like air – ban it all you want, it's still there.”

“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.”

“Courage is not walking into battle with no fear - you should know this as a soldier. Courage is feeling great fear, but walking forward anyway.Lady Lavender by Lynna Banning”

“No, I am not imagining a book-burning, warmongering, anti-intellectual fascist regime – in my plan, there is no place for re ghters who light up the Homers and Lady Murasakis and Cao Xueqins stashed under your bed – because, for starters, I’m not banning literature per se. I’m banning the reading of literature. Purchasing and collecting books and other forms of literature remains perfectly legitimate as long as you don’t peruse the literature at hand.”

“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”

“Banning books is just another form of bullying. It's all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.”

“The thing I hate about religion is, they ban what they have done and force us to do what they haven’t done.”

“Some children were lucky enough to have their Potter novels banned by witch-hunting school boards and micromanaging ministers. Is there any greater job than a book you're not allowed to read, a book you could go to hell for reading?”

“I don't just want to ban The Bomb. I want to ban all bombs, whatever, and all bombers, whoever, and all bombings, whyever. There have to be better ways of saying no and making changes.”

“What if I got hit by lightning while walking with an umbrella? Ban umbrellas! Fight the menace of lightning!”