Too late, but I understand. That we don't perish of understanding everything too late, that is a miracle. But we do perish of that -- of just that.
Philip RothIt 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.
Philip RothBecause that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.
Philip RothA life of writing books is a trying adventure in which you cannot find out where you are unless you lose your way.
Philip RothI think I write or publish as much as I do because I can bear being without a book to work on. But routinely when I finish a book, I think, "What will I do? Where will I get an idea?" And a kind of low-level panic sets in. And then eventually something happens. I don't know. If I knew how it happened I would repeat the process, but I don't know - something just occurs to me.
Philip Roth