"The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress."
"Never in his life had occasion to ask himself, "Why are things the way they are?" Why should he bother, when the way they were was always perfect? Why are things the way they are? The question to which there is no answer, and up till then he was so blessed he didn't even know the question existed."
3 likes
Source: Philip Roth (1997). “American Pastoral”, p.78, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Philip Roth
"Only in America, Rabbi Golden, do these peasants, our mothers, get their hair dyed platinum at the age of sixty, and walk up and down Collins Avenue in Florida in pedalpushers and mink stoles - and with opinions on every subject under the sun. It isn't their fault they were given a gift like speech - look, if cows could talk, they would say things just as idiotic."
"I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists."
"He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense."
"You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you."
"Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre."