61 Quotes by James Purdy

Publishers seem to be in an alcoholic haze most of the time. Well, the publishers have no idea what a writer is.

Most journalists are broken down alcoholics.

I am against all machines. It’s no wonder that so many Americans go on dope when they have no other cultural stimulus than a television.

The public is totally illiterate in America. It can’t read at all. It’s absolutely insensitive to words.

New York establishment isn’t really a literary establishment. It’s just a collection of broken down old newspaper hacks who pass judgment on books that they have not even read, with assuredness of Jehova.

I don’t think I’d like it if people liked me, I’d think that something had gone wrong.

I’ve never been in fashion. Not at all.

She made no point of concealing the truth, for the truth was all she could bear now.

Most books don’t even come into the world with the noise of the still-born.