Paul West (poet)



Paul West (23 February 1930 – 18 October 2015) was an English writer and poet. He has been awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award in 1985 and the Lannon Prize for Fiction and Grand Prix Halperine-Kaminsky awards in 1993.

Quotes

 * 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.
 * George Santayana, from The Wine of Absurdity (1966).


 * 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.
 * In Defense of Purple Prose (1985)