Via Churumuri, Pullman responding to a question on his book-
Q: Mr. Pullman, the title of the novel, seems to an ordinary Christian, to be offensive. And to call the son of the God a scoundrel is an awful thing to say.
A: Yes. It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to say. But 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. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if they open it 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, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book. You could 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.
