Nancy Gibbs

The days of the Pentagon Papers debates seem long past, when a sudden transparency yielded insight into fights over war and peace and freedom and security; the transparency afforded by Twitter and Facebook yields insights that extend no further than a lawmaker's boundless narcissism and a culture's pitiless prurience.

American Journalist

Julia Glass

At its best, fiction cultivates fantasy and compassion; at its worst, memoir provokes schadenfreude and prurience. The ugly truth, I fear, is that many people are drawn to sensational memoirs for the same reason they watch 'The Apprentice': they like to witness actual suffering, before-your-very-eyes humiliation.

American Novelist

Kate O'Mara

Why should anyone be interested in my life? It's the prurience I find so extraordinary. Why, why, oh why should my private life be of any interest to the public? The only people who should be interested are my friends.

English Actress

Niall Ferguson

The British press has an insatiable appetite for making public things that should be private. It's a prurience that I've never understood.

British Historian

Prurience has a disapproving tone, suggesting that the interest is inappropriate or too much.

Negative Tone

Content described as prurient is not suitable for children due to its sexual nature.

Not for Children

Works with prurient content are often censored or restricted in some societies.

Censorship

Prurience implies an intrusive interest in others' private affairs.

Privacy Invasion

Today's society often encourages prurience through reality TV and social media.

Culture of Curiosity

Prurience is commonly found in sensational journalism, focusing on scandals.