I kept waiting for him to lay bare something more than this pointed unobjectionableness, but all that rose to the surface was more surface
Philip RothEverybody has a hard job. All real work is hard. My work happened also to be undoable. Morning after morning for 50 years, I faced the next page defenseless and unprepared. Writing for me was a feat of self-preservation. If I did not do it, I would die. So I did it. Obstinacy, not talent, saved my life.
Philip RothDoctor, I had never had anybody like her in my life, she was the fulfillment of my most lascivious adolescent dreamsโ but marry her, can she be serious? You see, for all her preening and perfumes, she has a very low opinion of herself, and simultaneouslyโ and here is the source of much of our trouble-a ridiculously high opinion of me. And simultaneously, a very low opinion of me! She is one confused Monkey, and, I'm afraid, not too very bright.
Philip Roth