Quotes by Philip Roth

Philip Roth

Philip Roth

American Novelist

Lived from: 1933 - 2018

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 19 march 1933 Died: 22 may 2018

Quotes 21 till 40 of 70.

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  • If you read a novel in more than two weeks, you don't read the novel really.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?
    ― Philip Roth
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  • It isn't that you subordinate your ideas to the force of the facts in autobiography but that you construct a sequence of stories to bind up the facts with a persuasive hypothesis that unravels your history's meaning.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • It's best to give while your hand is still warm.
    Everyman (2006)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • It's human to have a secret, but it's just as human to reveal it sooner or later.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • It’s amazing what lies people can sustain behind the mask of their real faces.
    Reading myself and others (1985)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Just like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Life is just a short period of time in which you are alive.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Literature got me into this mess and literature is going to have to get me out of it.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • 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.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • 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.
    The Human Stain (2000)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that -- well, lucky you.
    American Pastoral (1997)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.
    The facts: a novelist's autobiography (1989)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets — no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!
    Portnoy's Complaint (1969)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Nothing has a more sinister effect on art than the artist's desire to prove that he's good. The terrible temptation of idealism!
    American Pastoral (1997)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.
    Everyman (2006)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • One either imposes one's ideas or one is imposed on.
    The Dying Animal (2001)
    ― Philip Roth
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  • Satire is moral outrage transformed into comic art.
    ― Philip Roth
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