You asked if I thought my fiction had changed anything in the culture and the answer is no. Sure, there's been some scandal, but people are scandalized all the time; it's a way of life for them. It doesn't mean a thing. If you ask if I want my fiction to change anything in the culture, the answer is still no. What I want is to possess my readers while they are reading my book if I can, to possess them in ways that other writers don't. Then let them return, just as they were, to a world where everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt, and control them.
He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense. - Philip Roth
He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.
- Philip Roth
When he [Joe Lewis] was asked upon his retirement about his long career, Joe sweetly summed it up in just ten words. 'I did the best I could with wha… - Philip Roth
When he [Joe Lewis] was asked upon his retirement about his long career, Joe sweetly summed it up in just ten words. 'I did the best I could with wha…
I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunc… - Philip Roth
I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunc…
You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you. - Philip Roth
You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.
All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing. - Philip Roth
All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.
Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre. - Philip Roth
Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.
Stop worrying about growing old. And think about growing up. - Philip Roth
Stop worrying about growing old. And think about growing up.
Everybody has a hard job. All real work is hard. My work happened also to be undoable. Morning after morning for 50 years, I faced the next page defe… - Philip Roth
Everybody has a hard job. All real work is hard. My work happened also to be undoable. Morning after morning for 50 years, I faced the next page defe…
The danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can't stop. - Philip Roth
The danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can't stop.
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