“Censorship may be tolerant of various avant-garde antics, since they keep writers busy and make literature an innocent pastime for a very restricted elite. But as soon as a writer shows signs of being attentive to reality, censorship clamps down.”
More from Czeslaw Milosz
“The sublime doesn't have fame or money on its side. But it persists, it renews itself in…”
“I raise above the altar bread and wine. Humbled, since my reason does not comprehend what…”
“There was a time when disinterested beauty by its sheer superabundance gratified our eyes.…”
“I was absent, dedicated to invisible countries.”