Philip Roth

"Nothing has a more sinister effect on art than the artist's desire to prove that he's good. The terrible temptation of idealism! You must achieve mastery over your idealism, over your virtue as well as over your vice, aesthetic mastery over everything that drives you to write in the first place - your outrage, your politics, your grief, your love!"

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Source: Philip Roth (1998). “I Married a Communist”, p.230, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Philip Roth

Philip Roth

Novelist

Philip Roth was a prominent American novelist known for his incisive exploration of identity and conflict, particularly in works like 'Portnoy's Complaint.'

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Philip Roth Novelist

"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."

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Philip Roth Novelist

"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."

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