Obscenity is a moral concept in the verbal arsenal of the establishment, which abuses the term by applying it, not to expressions of its own morality but to those of another.

The truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality to define what is real.

Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination.

Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world.

The spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the control.

The Superego, in censoring the unconscious and in implanting conscience, also censors the censor.

Most people are afraid of freedom. They are conditioned to be afraid of it.

There is no free society without silence, without the internal and external spaces of solitude in which the individual freedom can develop.

The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value counts. On it centers the rationality of the status quo, and all alien rationality is bent to It.

Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.

Entertainment and learning are not opposites; entertainment may be the most effective mode of learning.

He was just so gorgeous, erotic, and intimidating at the same time, ” she said, grinning.

It's a good thing I was born in this century, when superfluous television seems to be part of the economy.

My first jobs were all civil service. At 14, I worked for the Canadian National Railways. At 16, I worked for the Canadian Penitentiary Service.

Through the last centuries, the effort of capitalism has been to take all the things that were human relations and turn them into monetary exchanges.

PC stuff just lowers the general acceptance of good work and replaces it with bogus poetry that celebrates values that in themselves are probably quite worthy.

I don't listen to music when I write, but I do turn on appropriate music when I read portions of my manuscripts back to myself - kind of like adding a soundtrack to help shape mood.

A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.

You're not a woman," he said finally. "You're the Grim Reaper with red hair!

Whitehead reacted strongly against the idea of God as a cosmic tyrant, one who brings about everything.

If you write in category, you write knowing there's a framework, there are reader expectations.