We 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 RothNever in his life had occasion to ask himself, "Why are things the way they are?" Why should he bother, when the way they were was always perfect? Why are things the way they are? The question to which there is no answer, and up till then he was so blessed he didn't even know the question existed.
Philip RothWriting turns you into somebody who's always wrong. the illusion that you may get it right someday is the perversity that draws you on. What else could? As pathological phenomena go, it doesn't completely wreck your life.
Philip Roth