We live in an age in which the imagination of the novelist is helpless against what he knows he is going to read in tomorrow's newspaper.
Philip RothHe is not simply looking into the mirror because he is transfixed by what he sees. Rather, the artistโs success depends as much as anything on his powers of detachment, on de-narcissizing himselfโฆ Freudโฆ studied his own dreams not because he was a โnarcissist,โ but because he was a student of dreams. And whose were at once the least and most accessible of dreams, if not his own?
Philip RothWe leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our imprint. Impurity, cruelty, abuse, error, excrement, semen - thereโs no other way to be here. Nothing to do with disobedience. Nothing to do with grace or salvation or redemption. Itโs in everyone. Indwelling. Inherent. Defining. The stain that is there before its mark.
Philip RothLiterature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts.
Philip RothEverybody 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 mistressโprobably had never even begun to see into himself
Philip Roth