Philip Roth Quotes

Philip Roth
Philip Roth
American Novelist
Born: Mar 19, 1933
Died: May 22, 2018
Book Life Me Work Writing You
Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach
All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing. Philip Roth
Astonishing More Know Knowing Passes Even
Life is just a short period of time in which you are alive. Philip Roth
Life Time You Alive Period Short Just Short Period Which
Unless one is inordinately fond of subordination, one is always at war. Philip Roth
War Unless Inordinately Fond Always Subordination
Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre. Philip Roth
Age Battle Old Old Age Massacre
Literature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts. Philip Roth
Power Beauty Moral Inspires Arises Counts Audacity Contest Off Authority Literature Which Belief Pulled
I said the screen will kill the reader, and it has: the movie screen in the beginning, the television screen, and now the coup de grace, the computer screen. Philip Roth
Grace Will Beginning Television Computer Computer Screen Coup Reader Said Screen Movie In The Beginning Now
Writing is frustration - it's daily frustration, not to mention humiliation. It's just like baseball: you fail two-thirds of the time. Philip Roth
Time Daily You Writing Frustration Humiliation Mention Fail Like Just Baseball Two-Thirds
For me, the passing of time has provided me with subjects I never had before. Subjects I can now look at from a historical perspective. Like the anti-communist era in America. I lived through that. I was a boy; I didn't find a way to write about it until many years later. The same with the Vietnam War. Philip Roth
War Time Me Perspective Before Later Way Find About Through Write Never Had Like Look Until Boy Era Passing Years Provided Subjects Historical America Same Vietnam Vietnam War Many Lived Now
Writing, for me, was a feat of self-preservation. If I did not do it, I would die. So I did it. Obstinacy, not talent, saved my life. Philip Roth
Life Me Writing My Life Saved Would Feat Talent Obstinacy Self-Preservation Did Die
I needed my life as a springboard for my fiction. I have to have something solid under my feet when I write. I'm not a fantasist. I bounce up and down on the diving board, and I go into the water of fiction. But I've got to begin in life so I can pump life into it throughout. Philip Roth
Life Water My Life Down Pump Solid Something Throughout Write Diving Bounce Feet Got Springboard Go Up Up And Down Begin Fiction Board Needed
That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader. Philip Roth
Life Freedom You Memory Will Looking Lose Own Find Writer Prose Reader Experiences Then Persuade Working Your Inhibition Deep
I'm not angry; I write about angry characters. When I'm doing that, I'm happy. Just like when I'm writing about Mickey Sabbath being lustful, I'm not feeling lustful; I'm happy. Philip Roth
Angry Happy Writing Feeling Characters About Sabbath Write Like Doing Mickey Just Being
Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding? Philip Roth
Human Being More Likely Misunderstanding Intelligent Than Human Being Much Manufacturer Large-Scale
With the draft, everybody was involved. Everybody was fodder. When you got to be 21, 22 and graduated from college, for two years your life stopped. If you had been running in the direction of your life, you had to stop and do this other thing which was, if not menacing, just plain boring. Philip Roth
Life You College Other Everybody Fodder Running Boring Menacing Direction Had Involved Got Been Years Graduated Just Stop Stopped Which Plain Your Thing Draft Two
A writer has to be driven crazy to help him to see. A writer needs his poisons. Philip Roth
Needs Crazy See Writer Driven Poisons Him His Help
My traducers propound my alleged malefaction as though I have spewed venom on women for half a century. But only a madman would go to the trouble of writing 31 books in order to affirm his hatred. Philip Roth
Women Writing Hatred Trouble Half Books Though Would Madman Alleged Only Venom Go His Affirm Order Century
Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts. Philip Roth
You Memories Experience Past Imagination Previous Facts Never Obviously Coming Just Formed Your Incorporated Imagining
I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists. Philip Roth
Life You World Live Assure Easier Would Writer Make Discretion Cannot Unfortunately Anyway Prefer Novelists
Fluency can be a sign that nothing is happening; fluency can actually be my signal to stop, while being in the dark from sentence to sentence is what convinces me to go on. Philip Roth
Me Dark Nothing Fluency Sign Signal Go Stop Being Happening While Sentence Actually
I don't ask writers about their work habits. I really don't care. Philip Roth
Work Care About Habits Writers dont Care Ask Really
As I see it, my focus has never been on masculine power rampant and triumphant but rather on the antithesis: masculine power impaired. Philip Roth
Focus Power Rampant See Impaired Triumphant Rather Never Masculine Been Antithesis
At night, I read. I read for two hours. I just finished a marvelous book by Louise Erdrich, 'The Round House.' But mostly I read 20th-century history and biography. I lived then. I was either a child or at school or at work. Philip Roth
Work History Book School Finished Marvelous Hours House Mostly Read Louise Child Just Either Then Lived Round Biography Night Two
Making fake biography, false history, concocting a half-imaginary existence out of the actual drama of my life is my life. Philip Roth
Life History My Life Drama Out Fake Making Existence False Actual Biography
Of course you bank on your experience, but as a sounding board. It isn't that you write down what happens to you every day. You wouldn't be a writer if you did that. Philip Roth
Day You Experience Every Day Down Every Write Writer Course Did Bank Happens Board Your
I have no desire to write fiction. I did what I did, and it's done. There's more to life than writing and publishing fiction. There is another way entirely, amazed as I am to discover it at this late date. Philip Roth
Life Writing Late Way No Desire Entirely More Date Write Another Another Way Am Amazed Discover Than Did Done Fiction Publishing Desire
The novelist's obsession, moment by moment, is with language: finding the right next word. Philip Roth
Word Language Finding Obsession Next Moment Novelist Right
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