I would rather have as my patron a host of anonymous citizens digging into their own pockets for the price of a book or a magazine than a small body of enlightened and responsible men administering public funds. I would rather chance my personal vision of truth striking home here and there in the chaos of publication that exists than attempt to filter it through a few sets of official, honorably public-spirited scruples.
John Updike's tstimony given before the Subcommittee on Select Education of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor in Boston, Massachusetts, January 30, 1978.
