Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 March 1933
CountryUnited States of America
admission books books-and-reading
It's an admission of the books into perpetuity.
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.
thrill horror lost
The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.
battle age massacres
Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.
world novelists easier
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.
hands giving stills
It's best to give while your hand is still warm.
materials happens
Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.
fun people unjust
People are unjust to anger - it can be enlivening and a lot of fun.
growing-up thinking worry
Stop worrying about growing old. And think about growing up.
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.
intelligent understanding scales
Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?
commitment writing use
I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.
playfulness seriousness closest
Sheer Playfulness and Deadly Seriousness are my closest friends.
maps body toes
I am marked like a road map from head to toe with my repressions. You can travel the length and breadth of my body over superhighways of shame and inhibition and fear.