Quotes About Self-censorship

Several times I drew a critical cartoon and then, at the last moment, stopped myself from putting it out in print. I thought it would be misunderstood, be a politically incorrect thing to do.

Making independent films is liberating. It eliminates self-censorship, which mainstream films are infected with due to commercial priorities.

Overall there may be less censorship in America than in China, but censorship and self-censorship are not only from political pressure, but also pressures from other places in a society.

When expressions of emotion are dangerous, and when you are constantly told that this terrible thing is being done for your own good, you quickly learn to hide your true feelings, even from yourself.

How wonderful to say whatever you wanted without having to go over it in your mind, again and again, to make certain it wouldn't set him off.

Spontaneity. Freedom. The opportunity for unstudied, impulsive roving through the backlands of his mind. Which are most detrimental? Inhibition. Self-censorship. Restraint.

I find it really cool when people have this artist persona they can put on. They can go out and act like this other person; I can't pull that off... I can't censor myself.

Before I got into stand-up, I was a really quiet guy who had all these thoughts, all these things I wanted to say, but there was never anyplace for me to say them because my mom would look at me and go, 'You better not say what you're thinking. You better not.'

All the time you're saying to yourself, 'I could do that, but I won't,'--which is just another way of saying that you can't.

If I'm not ready to open something up to the scrutiny of the internet, I don't write about it.

We are all frightened now. No one says anything public without looking over their shoulder and wondering, Have I said something wrong? Am I going to get in trouble?

I think there are ways in which we censor ourselves; that's the most dangerous kind of censorship - that's how hegemony works.

Political writing in our time consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together like the pieces of a child's Meccano set. It is the unavoidable result of self-censorship. To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.

We live in a frightened time, and people self-censor all the time and are afraid of going into some subjects because they are worried about violent reactions.

I can almost never say what I'm thinking at any given moment. I would have been stabbed to death years ago.

We're creating a culture where people feel constantly surveilled, where people are afraid to be themselves.

This is one reason social media has been so transformative: there is always an audience eager to watch people being shamed, particularly when it is so easy for spectators to join in and pile on. Life in a call-out culture requires constant vigilance, fear, and self-censorship.

Can't write worrying what the Internet's going to think.

The worst evil is - and that's the product of censorship - is the self-censorship, because that twists spines, that destroys my character because I have to think something else and say something else, I have to always control myself.

The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service.

It's so funny to think about it now, but I kind of toned everything down about myself for 'Idol.' When it came down to song choices, or hair choices, or stuff like that, producers had the final say. I never got to sing, for instance, a female artist's song.

The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service.

In the past, I had this open-door policy where everyone was invited. And that was awesome, but you end up releasing songs that you don't really like and justifying it in your head.

I still have this image: I can't be controversial, I can't say things.