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It takes a certain amount of sass to speak up for prose that's rich, succulent and full of novelty. Purple is immoral, undemocratic and insincere; at best artsy, at worst the exterminating angel of depravity.

— Paul West In Defense of Purple Prose (1985)

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Humanism, it seems, is almost impossible in America where material progress is part of the national romance whereas in Europe such progress is relished because it feels nice.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Paul West (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.