Books V. Cigarettes

But I do know that before the war this country was publishing annually about 15 000 books. If my estimate is anywhere near right, it is not a proud record for a country which is nearly 100 per cent literate and where ordinary man spends more on cigarettes than an Indian peasant has for this whole lifehood.

Moral liberty- the liberty to discuss sex questions frankly in print -- seemed to be generally approved, but political liberty was not mentioned.

There are countless people who would think it scandalous to falsifying scientific textbook but would see nothing wrong in falsifying an historical fact. This partly accounts for the fact that in all countries it is easier for the scientist than for the writers to line up behind their respective governments.

It is doubtful even now whether the great mass of people in the industrialized countries feel the need for any kind of literature. They are unwilling, at any rate, to spend anywhere near as much on reading matter as they spend on several other recreations. Probably novels and stories will be completely superseded by film and radio productions or perhaps some kind of low grade sensational fiction will survive, produced by a sort of convoyer built process that reduces human initiative to the minimum.

Unless spontaneity enters at some point or another, literary creation is impossible, and language itself becomes something totally different from what it is now, we may learn to separate literary creation from intellectual honesty.

I was crying partly because I felt that this was expected of me, partly from genuine repentance, but partly also because of a deeper grief which is peculiar to childhood and not easy to convey; a sense of desolate loneliness and helplessness of being locked up not only in a hostile world but in a world of good and evil where the rules were such that it was actually not possible for me to keep them.

Your home might be far from perfect, but at least it was a place ruled by love rather than by fear, you did not have to be perpetually on your guard against the people surrounding you.

It was not only money that mattered; there were also strength, beauty, charm athleticism and something called “guts” or “character”, which in reality meant the power to impose your will on others.