Orhan Pamuk in Freedom to Write comments:
"…didn't I often and angrily fantasize about raising these subjects in my novels, just because they happened to be forbidden [by the state]? As I thought all this through, I was at once ashamed of my silence, and reconfirmed in my belief that freedom of expression has its roots in pride, and is, in essence, an expression of human dignity."
The sense of shame among novelists and publishers in the U.S. should be far greater and deeper than this because even though here there is little or no state censorship, there is still no flood of novels about many of the great crises of our day. In some cases scarcely even a trickle, or less.
A Practical Policy 