Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 March 1933
CountryUnited States of America
writing desire fiction
I haven't written a word of fiction since 2009. 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.
inspire audacity literature
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.
sex taken men
Sex is all the enchantment required. Do men find women so enchanting once the sex is taken out? Does anyone find anyone that enchanting unless they have sexual business with them? Who else are you enchanted by? Nobody.
punishment suffering
It's amazing how much punishment we can take.
alive sides nasty
For a pure sense of being tumultuously alive, you can't beat the nasty side of existence.
serious natural savory
I do not say correct or savory. I do not say seemly or even natural. I say serious. Sensationally serious. Unspeakably serious. Solemnly, recklessly, blissfully serious.
inspiring children parent
The legend engraved on the face of the Jewish nickel- on the body of every Jewish child!- not IN GOD WE TRUST, but SOMEDAY YOU'LL BE A PARENT AND YOU'LL KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE.
imagination age novelists
We live in an age in which the imagination of the novelist is helpless against what he knows he is going to read in tomorrow's newspaper.
literature mess
Literature got me into this mess and literature is going to have to get me out of it.
doctors
Doctor doctor, what do you say, lets put the id back in yid
memories boys childhood
Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear.Of course no childhood is without its terrors, yet I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews.
memories biographies bones
I was a biography in constant motion, memory to the marrow of my bones.
rooms pleasure persons
The pleasure isn't in owning the person. The pleasure is this. Having another contender in the room with you.
life-is easy easy-life
How easy life is when it's easy, and how hard when it's hard.