I don't know any writer for whom it comes easily. Maybe John Updike - a story would just seem to come to him whole, you know, out of a personal experience. But the rest of us, I think, are not so lucky, and I had to work hard, yeah.
Interpretation
Writing is often a difficult and laborious process, not something that comes easily to everyone.
In this quote, Philip Roth reflects on the nature of writing and the fact that, contrary to the perception that some writers may have an effortless connection to their craft, many writers face significant challenges and must exert considerable effort to produce their work. He acknowledges that while some, like John Updike, may have an innate talent for storytelling, the majority of writers struggle and must work hard to overcome obstacles in their creative process.
In practice
In a speech about the challenges of creative work, one might say, 'As Philip Roth pointed out, writing is not easy for everyone; it requires hard work and perseverance.'
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.
Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.
I've always loved the idea that you think you know what you're looking at from a distance, yet when you come up close, it gets intricate and nutty and obscene and provocative.
You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.
Being an actress, I find myself people-watching and I can be quite shy.
Authorship is not a trade, it is an inspiration; authorship does not keep an office, its habitation is all out under the sky, and everywhere the winds are blowing and the sun is shining and the creatures of God are free.
I have had three masters, Nature, Velasquez, and Rembrandt.
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