I don't think it's like eastern mysticism, which leaves the person whole. It's really another form of cancer, television.
James PurdyThe public is totally illiterate in America. It can't read at all. It's absolutely insensitive to words.
James PurdyThe world is telling you through The New York Times and The New York Review of Books "You must shut up. You must never appear again. Because you are not relevant to us." So you have to fight their attempt to destroy you, fight to continue feeling.
James PurdyFeeling is taboo, especially in New York. I read in some little magazine the other day that The New Yorker and The New York Times were sclerotic, meaning, "completely turned to rock." The critics here are that way.
James Purdy