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Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.
Salman Rushdie
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Self-censorship in artistic expression undermines authenticity and creativity.

The quote by Salman Rushdie emphasizes the importance of complete honesty and freedom in the creative process. It suggests that holding back one's true thoughts and feelings in art not only diminishes the value of the work but also betrays the artist's genuine self-expression, rendering any art produced insincere and unworthy.

Themes

Self-CensorshipArtAuthenticityCreativityExpressionFreedom

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of creative freedom in artistic endeavors.

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Quote by Salman Rushdie | QuoteProject