I donโt ask writers about their work habits. I really donโt care. Joyce Carol Oates says somewhere that when writers ask each other what time they start working and when they finish and how much time they take for lunch, theyโre actually trying to find out, "Is he as crazy as I am?" I donโt need that question answered.
Philip RothJust like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when.
Philip RothEach book starts from ashes really. I don't feel that I have this to say or that to say or this story to tell or that story to tell, but I want to be occupied with the writing process while I'm living.
Philip RothWorld War III will be triggered off not by suppressed nationalists seeking political independence, as happened the first time around when the Serbs at Sarajevo shot the heir to the Austrian throne, but by some semiliterate, whacked-out "loner" who lobs a rocket into a nuclear arsenal in order to impress Brooke Shields.
Philip Roth