Writing, for me, was a feat of self-preservation. If I did not do it, I would die. So I did it. Obstinacy, not talent, saved my life.
Interpretation
Writing serves as a necessary outlet for personal expression and survival.
In this quote, Philip Roth expresses the idea that writing is more than just a creative activity; it is a vital means of preserving his sense of self and well-being. He emphasizes that the act of writing is driven by a desperate need rather than merely talent, suggesting that the persistence to write can often correlate with a struggle for personal survival and identity.
In practice
In a seminar on creative writing, this quote can be used to emphasize the therapeutic aspects of writing.
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.
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.
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
When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.
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.
That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader.
Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you can get so much attention without having to actually show up somewhere... You don't have to dress up, for instance, and you can't hear them boo you right away.
All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.
Before I compose a piece, I walk round it several times, accompanied by myself.
As a writer of fiction, I spend my days inventing real lives for make-believe people; what I create can only seem real.
Sometimes I long so much to do landscape, just as one would go for a long walk to refresh oneself, and in all of nature, in trees for instance, I see expression and a soul.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.