Capital Punishment for Literary Critics

Philip Roth sat down for a cantankerous interview with with the Guardian and it’s a fascinating piece. In the interview, he explains why he doesn’t smile, how the Jewish-writer tag irritates him, and that he would love “a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot.”

It’s a good and revealing piece. Just remind me to run if Roth is ever heading my way.