Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 March 1933
CountryUnited States of America
father sleep kids
It's absolutely fantastic. When I was a kid, my father was always trying to tell me how to be a man, and he said to me, I was maybe 9, and he said to me, 'Philip, whenever you take a nap, take your clothes off, put a blanket on you, and you're going to sleep better.' Well, as with everything, he was right. ... Then the best part of it is that when you wake up, for the first 15 seconds, you have no idea where you are. You're just alive. That's all you know. And it's bliss, it's absolute bliss.
book adventure writing
A life of writing books is a trying adventure in which you cannot find out where you are unless you lose your way.
people alive facts
The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong.
sea feelings demand
You be greater than your feelings. I don't demand this of you - life does. Otherwise you'll be washed away by feelings. You'll be washed out to sea and never seen again.
growing-up thinking worry
Stop worrying about growing old. And think about growing up.
intelligent understanding scales
Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?
angel
There are no uncontaminated angels
knows
Everyone becomes a part of history whether they like it or not and whether they know it or not.
silence mind literature
Literature takes a habit of mind that has disappeared. It requires silence, some form of isolation, and sustained concentration in the presence of an enigmatic thing.
children believe winter
When I was a child... I was watching a snowstorm, and hopefully asked, 'Momma, do we believe in winter?'
dark goes-on convince
Being in the dark from sentence to sentence is what convinces me to go on.
miracle understanding too-late
Too late, but I understand. That we don't perish of understanding everything too late, that is a miracle. But we do perish of that -- of just that.
men parent alive
A Jewish man with his parents alive is half the time a helpless infant!
enjoyable
Like all enjoyable things, you see, it has unenjoyable parts to it.