I'm very curious to know what it's like, death - I always say to my wife, 'I wonder if we'll have the 'New York Times' when we're dead.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I want to tell you what it was really like to think death is imminent, but I can't. It's a taste in your mouth. And an emptiness.
When I die there may be a paragraph or two in the newspapers. My name will linger in the British Museum Reading Room catalogue for a space at the head of a long list of books for which no one will ever ask.
Dead people never seem to address the obvious - the things you'd think they'd be bursting to talk about, and the things all of us not-yet-dead are madly curious about. Such as: 'Hey, where are you now? What do you do all day? What's it feel like being dead? Can you see me? Even when I'm on the toilet? Would you cut that out?'
If death is in the room, it's pretty interesting. But I would also say that I'm interested in getting myself to believe that it's going to happen to me. I'm interested in it, because if you're not, you're nuts. It's really de facto what we're here to find out about.
People from New York have been calling, to see if I'm still alive. When I answer the phone, you can hear the disappointment in their voice.
I'm fairly certain when I die that the obituary will say, 'Author of 'Angels in America' dies.' Unless I'm completely forgotten, and then it won't say anything at all.
People are hysterical about the death of newspapers, and I would say, 'They're not dying; they're just kind of reinventing themselves.'
I don't think most people know what's going to be in their obituary, but I do.
I always wondered what hearing one's own obituary might sound like, and I sort of feel like I may have just heard part of it at least.
Films and gramophone records, music, books and buildings show clearly how vigorously a man's life and work go on after his 'death,' whether we feel it or not, whether we are aware of the individual names or not. There is no such thing as death according to our view!