A dangerous book will always be in danger from those it threatens with the demand that they question their assumptions. They'd rather hang on to the assumptions and ban the book.

I've got some gift for languages. You follow your gift. But Latin's not easy.

Even a poet cannot get everything right.

If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.

A writer either speaks to adults and bores kids, or speaks to kids and upsets adults.

If you're a fiction writer, though, I can tell you how to let people talk through you. Listen. Just be quiet, and listen. Let the character talk. Don't censor, don't control. Listen, and write.

Do you know how to read?" "No. It is one of the black arts." He nodded. "But a useful one," he said.