I think that New York is not the cultural centre of America, but the business and administrative centre of American culture.

Bellow draws a distinction between where culture is made and where it is managed. Calling New York the “business and administrative centre” suggests that publishing, criticism, patronage, and the institutions that distribute prestige are concentrated there, even if artistic energy and originality arise elsewhere in the country. The remark also implies a skepticism toward metropolitan self-mythology: New York may dominate the cultural marketplace and the mechanisms of recognition, but it does not necessarily monopolize cultural imagination. In Bellow’s broader outlook, this aligns with his interest in the richness of American life beyond a single elite hub and his wariness of cultural gatekeeping.