I 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 RothThe only way to have a funeral is to invite everyone who ever knew the person and just wait for the accident to happen-somebody who comes in out of the blue and says the truth. Everything else is table manners.
Philip RothFear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear.Of course no childhood is without its terrors, yet I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews.
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 Roth