"Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?"
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Quote collection
Philip Roth quotes (page 2 of 9)
167 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material."
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"When I was a child... I was watching a snowstorm, and hopefully asked, 'Momma, do we believe in winter?'"
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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."
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"Unless one is inordinately fond of subordination, one is always at war."
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"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."
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"There are no uncontaminated angels"
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"Satire is moral outrage transformed into comic art."
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"Sheer Playfulness and Deadly Seriousness are my closest friends."
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"The pleasure isn't in owning the person. The pleasure is this. Having another contender in the room with you."
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"Stop worrying about growing old. And think about growing up."
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"People are unjust to anger - it can be enlivening and a lot of fun."
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"The only way to have a funeral is to invite everyone who ever knew the person and just wait for the accident to happen-somebody who comes in out of the blue and says the truth. Everything else is table manners."
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"Seeing is believing and believing is knowing and knowing beats unknowing and the unknown."
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"You cannot observe people through an ideology. Your ideology observes for you."
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"Being in the dark from sentence to sentence is what convinces me to go on."
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"Everyone becomes a part of history whether they like it or not and whether they know it or not."
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"Sex is all the enchantment required. Do men find women so enchanting once the sex is taken out? Does anyone find anyone that enchanting unless they have sexual business with them? Who else are you enchanted by? Nobody."
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"Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts."
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"Dreams? If only they had been! But I don't need dreams, Doctor, that's why I hardly have them—because I have this life instead. With me it all happens in broad daylight!"
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