Voice Quotes by Nat Hentoff
All Voice quotes Nat Hentoff’s page
If you’re curious about how Nat Hentoff frames the idea of speaking out, these eleven snippets give a quick taste of his perspective. They capture his knack for weighing words against society’s louder clamor, offering a compact yet resonant look at why a voice matters.
![“I wrote the column. I - you know, - the column simply said that [Clay] Felker is destroying this paper. And I heard that he was about ready to fire me, but two other people on The Voice interceded and, fortunately, he had a very short attention span, so I wasn't fired.” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f90/nat-hentoff-1615_attention_i-wrote-the-column-i-you-know-the-column_2228462.jpg)
![“[William Shawn] took over The Voice and tried to turn it into New York Magazine - very glitzy covers that promised practically nothing in terms of what was inside, very rushed paper anymore. You - not very contemplative, thoughtful or whatever.” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d1e/nat-hentoff-1615_contemplative_william-shawn-took-over-the-voice-and-tr_809810.jpg)
![“Margot [Hentoff] used to write regularly for The Voice, for The New York Review of Books, for Harper's Bazaar, and she really had the most distinctive writing style, even more than mine, than I've ever seen in this business.” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f16/nat-hentoff-1615_bazaars_margot-hentoff-used-to-write-regularly-f_598178.jpg)
![“I like [John Cardinal O'Connor] a lot. He - I started a - to know him - when I asked William Shawn at The New Yorker, 'Sh - can I do a profile of Cardinal O'Connor?' He said, 'All right. Find out what he's like.' So I went to his office, and I heard somebody - and it turned out to be O'Connor…” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e89/nat-hentoff-1615_cardinals_i-like-john-cardinal-o-connor-a-lot-he-i_2810252.jpg)
![“I got a letter one day from somebody saying, 'You're always criticizing the press. Why don't you talk about what Clay Felker is doing to your own paper [The Voice]?' And my 10-year-old son Tom, now with Williams & Connelly, put in a legal opinion, not - an opinion from the back of the car saying…” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3cb/nat-hentoff-1615_car_i-got-a-letter-one-day-from-somebody-say_2544424.jpg)
![“After [Bill Shawn] was fired, I was going to the YMHA [Young Men's Hebrew Association] on the Upper East Side to do a talk on free speech.I went into a coffee shop to get a piece of pie and a coffee, and I was reading a paper and I hear a voice. And it was -it was not a voice I was familiar with…” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b93/nat-hentoff-1615_association_after-bill-shawn-was-fired-i-was-going-t_2185565.jpg)
![“[Margot Hentoff] thinks - first of all, she - this I hear from a lot of people beside her. She thinks that men have no business getting into this argument at all unless they're going to be pro-choice. But it turns out that a fair number of fetuses are male, and besides that, we are all one part of…” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/060/nat-hentoff-1615_argument_margot-hentoff-thinks-first-of-all-she-t_42891.jpg)
![“My chronology is terrible. [Work with William Shawn] must have some ago. It was after he was fired by Newhouse. After New - when Newhouse bought The New Yorker, he said in one of those grand press” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b15/nat-hentoff-1615_chronology_my-chronology-is-terrible-work-with-will_68342.jpg)
![“We disagree heavily on abortion [with Margot Hentoff].” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b48/nat-hentoff-1615_abortion_we-disagree-heavily-on-abortion-with-mar_70628.jpg)
![“[My wife Margot] was the - I guess, the coordinator or the production manager [of The Jazz Review], and we got to know each other and we married.” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/18d/nat-hentoff-1615_coordinator_my-wife-margot-was-the-i-guess-the-coord_104123.jpg)
![“[A.J. Muste] was - he - I don't know what he finally came out believing in, but it was some kind of higher being.” quote by Nat Hentoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c49/nat-hentoff-1615_believe_a-j-muste-was-he-i-don-t-know-what-he-fi_209477.jpg)