Pullman on Censorship

How I do adore and respect our man, Philip:

Philip Pullman, addressing an audience at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, was asked about whether his latest book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, was offensive. Here’s his reply:

“It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to
say. But no one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has
the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has to read
this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if you
open it and read it, you don’t have to like it. And if you read it and
you dislike it, you don’t have to remain silent about it. You can write
to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the publisher, you
can write to the papers, you can write your own book. You can do all
those things, but there your rights stop. No one has the right to stop
me writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published,
or bought, or sold or read. That’s all I have to say on that subject.”