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.
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.
feelings phrases said
Actually we did not have the feelings we said we had until we spoke them--at least I didn't; to phrase them was to invent them and own them.
loyalty daughter intelligent
Everybody who flashed the signs of loyalty he took to be loyal. Everybody who flashed the signs of intelligence he took to be intelligent. And so he had failed to see into his daughter, failed to see into his wife, failed to see into his one and only mistress—probably had never even begun to see into himself