If you're a writer, you have to be an egomaniac. You have to just believe in yourself, which is hard work. — James Purdy Copy Share Image
“Pleasure died forty years ago in America, perhaps further back, in a wave of carbon monoxide, gasoline, cigarettes for dames, the belief in everything and everybody, tolerance for the intolerable, the hatred of being alone in silence for more than twenty seconds, the assurance that immortality was Americans eating all-cow franks, with speeded-up peristalsis while talking to a crowd of… — James Purdy Copy Share
Feeling is taboo, especially in New York. I read in some little magazine the other day that The New Yorker and The New York… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
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… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
There's the world of the newspapers. They believe that what is happening is happening, which is so naïve. Because they're the first to turn… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
Margaret Meade is always running around saying that marijuana's just like bread and water! Well, bread and water are poison, and marijuana's a poison.… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
I don't have any home. Everyone I grew up with, my family, are all dead. So I feel kind of like a ghost. I'm… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
“Writing is like a battle. You’re often so into it you don’t have any high ideals. You’re just doing it. I have all these… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
None of my books are best-sellers. In fact, the only thing that's kept me alive is the books that are in paperback. People find… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
Television masturbates its audience even though the audience is not really watching. It masturbates orifices the audience doesn't have. It sticks holes in the… — James Purdy Copy Share Image
