Friendships are the family we make – not the one we inherit. I’ve always been someone to whom friendship, elective affinities, is as important as family.
One of the problems with defending free speech is you often have to defend people that you find outrageous and unpleasant and disgusting.
It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions.
Something was badly amiss with the spiritual life of the planet. Too many demons inside people claiming to believe in God.
The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.
Two things form the bedrock of any open society – freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don’t have those things, you don’t have a free country.
Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
Freedom to reject is the only freedom.
Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.
