Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 March 1933
CountryUnited States of America
wish literature slave
I don't wish to be a slave any longer to the stringent exigencies of literature.
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.
literature mess
Literature got me into this mess and literature is going to have to get me out of it.
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.
book certain guide haul knew life literature rule satisfied taste three
The long haul kind of wearies me, the thought of doing a book for two or three or years; and you have to rule so much else out of your life. I always knew that literature satisfied a taste for considering life in a certain way, but that it wasn't a guide to living.
touch
I was back in touch with my place,
everybody graduated life plain running stop
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.
history nightmare trying
History ... is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
academy choice expected mix tends unexpected
The Academy tends to like to mix the expected with the unexpected choices,
fun people unjust
People are unjust to anger - it can be enlivening and a lot of fun.
character men envy
American society [...] not only sanctions gross and unfair relations among men, but it encourages them. Now, can that be denied? No. Rivalry, competition, envy, jealousy, all that is malignant in human character is nourished by the system. Possession, money, property--on such corrupt standards as these do you people measure happiness and success.
together twain
Together they are the Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain of the 20th century,
czech goes matters met occurred society work writer writers
When I was first in Czechoslovakia, it occurred to me that I work in a society where as a writer everything goes and nothing matters, while for the Czech writers I met in Prague, nothing goes and everything matters
depict observed reckless seemed talked trying
It seemed pretty reckless and vicious. I was just trying to depict the way it was, the way it sounded, what they talked about. This was just what I observed or imagined.