Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 March 1933
CountryUnited States of America
sex matter corruption
How can one say, 'No, this isn't a part of life,' since it always is? The contaminant of sex, the redeeming corruption that de-idealizes the species and keeps us everlastingly mindful of the matter we are.
gains doe mask
The question to ask about the writer isn't 'Why does he behave so badly?' but 'What does he gain by wearing this mask?
new-york people doe
I came to New York and in only hours, New York did what it does to people: awakened the possibilities. Hope breaks out.
mother men sick
When he is sick, every man wants his mother.
secret revelations sooner-or-later
It's human to have a secret, but it's just as human to reveal it sooner or later.
knowing knows astonishing
All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.
philosophical lasts
Nothing lasts and yet nothing passes either, and nothing passes just because nothing lasts.
fate vanity fool
--nor had I understood til then how the shameless vanity of utter fools can so strongly determine the fate of others
thinking people stories
And as he spoke, I was thinking, 'the kind of stories that people turn life into, the kind of lives people turn stories into.
climbing childhood tree
In my childhood I led the life of a sage, when I grew up I started climbing trees
dream confused doctors
Doctor, I had never had anybody like her in my life, she was the fulfillment of my most lascivious adolescent dreams– but marry her, can she be serious? You see, for all her preening and perfumes, she has a very low opinion of herself, and simultaneously– and here is the source of much of our trouble-a ridiculously high opinion of me. And simultaneously, a very low opinion of me! She is one confused Monkey, and, I'm afraid, not too very bright.
firsts
Let's hope the first comes first.
dying illness ill
Just like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when.
writing mind fiction
What I have in mind when I start to write could fit inside an acorn-an acorn, moreover, that rarely if ever grows into an oak. Write fiction and you relinquish reason. You start with an acorn and you end up with a mackerel.