"We must hope that in coming years more people, here and abroad, will realize how dangerous it is to live in a culture with a limited choice of ideas and alternatives, and how essential it is to maintain a wide-ranging debate.  In short, to remember how important books have always been in our lives."

~ Andre Schiffrin, The Business of Books, Verso, 2000.  European-born American writer, publisher, socialist.

"Books Differ In Crucial Ways From Other Media"

"The idea that our society has been fundamentally affected by the importance of money is widely recognized...Not only our belongings but our jobs and, indeed, ourselves have become commodities to be bought and sold to the highest bidder...
"What has happened to the work of publishers is no worse than what has taken place in other liberal professions.  But the change that has occurred in publishing is of paramount importance.


"It is only in books that arguments and inquiries can be conducted at length and in depth.  Books have traditionally been the one medium in which two people, an author and an editor, could agree that something needed to be said, and for a relatively small amount of money, share it with the public.  Books differ in crucial ways from other media.  Unlike magazines, they are not advertiser-driven.  Unlike television and films, they do not have to find a mass audience.  Books can afford to go against the current, to raise new ideas, to challenge the statusquo, in the hope that with time an audience will be found.
"We need to find new ways of maintaining the discourse that used to be considered an essential part of a democratic society."


~ Andre Schiffrin, The Business of Books, Verso, 2001.