I knew it was a shocking thing to say. No one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has to read this book. No one has to pick it up. No one has to open it. If they open and read it they don’t have to like it and if you read it and dislike it you don’t have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can complain about it, write to the publisher, write to the papers, write your own book. You can do all those things, but there your rights stop. No one has the right to stop me writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published or sold or bought or read and that’s all I have to say on that subject. --Philip Pullman