A Jewish man with his parents alive is half the time a helpless infant! — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy until they die! — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
The Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy and will remain a fifteen-year-old until they die. — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“Even a monster has to be from somewhere—even a monster needs parents. But parents don't need monsters.” — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“Good Christ, a Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die!” — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“Ingeniously as their parents and teachers may attempt to protect the young from being drawn, to their detriment, into the moronic amusement… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“If he had another brother he would call him. But for a brother he has only Jerry and Jerry has only him.… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“His mother had died at eighty, his father at ninety. Aloud he said to them, "I'm seventy-one. Your boy is seventy-one." "Good.… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
It's absolutely fantastic. When I was a kid, my father was always trying to tell me how to be a man, and… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
a father for whom everything is an unshakable duty, for whom there is a right way and a wrong way and nothing… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“Mr. Levov was one of those slum-reared Jewish fathers whose rough-hewn, undereducated perspective goaded a whole generation of striving, college-educated Jewish sons:… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“I remember when Jewish kids were home doing their homework. What happened? What the hell happened to our smart Jewish kids? If,… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“Memories particularly of when they weren’t being what parents are nine-tenths of the time, the taskmasters, the examples, the moral authorities, the… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“In my parents' day and age, it used to be the person who fell short. Now it's the discipline. Reading the classics… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“Doctor Spielvogel, it alleviates nothing fixing the blame - blaming is still ailing, of course, of course - but nonetheless, what was… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“The kid, whose existence became a hallucination at seven, and a catastrophe at fourteen, and a disaster after that, whose vocation is… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“The old intergenerational give-and-take of the country-that-used-to-be, when everyone knew his role and took the rules dead seriously, the acculturating back-and-forth that all of… — Philip Roth Copy Share
You be greater than your feelings. I don't demand this of you - life does. Otherwise you'll be washed away by feelings. You'll be… — Philip Roth Copy Share
The only way to have a funeral is to invite everyone who ever knew the person and just wait for the accident to happen-somebody… — Philip Roth Copy Share
To become a celebrity is to become a brand name. There is Ivory Soap, Rice Krispies, and Philip Roth. Ivory is the soap that… — Philip Roth Copy Share
“There are no reasons. She is obliged to be as she is. We all are. Reasons are in books.” — Philip Roth Copy Share
“As far as I can see there is no conquering or exorcising the past with words - words born either of imagination or forthrightness.” — Philip Roth Copy Share
“What is astonishing is that we, who had no idea how anything was going to turn out, now know exactly what happened.” — Philip Roth Copy Share
“Good Christ, a Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die!” — Philip Roth Copy Share
“Better for real things to be uncontrollable, better for one's life to be undecipherable and intellectually impenetrable than to attempt to make casual sense… — Philip Roth Copy Share
“Doctor Spielvogel, it alleviates nothing fixing the blame - blaming is still ailing, of course, of course - but nonetheless, what was it with… — Philip Roth Copy Share
My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got… — Philip Roth Copy Share
You asked if I thought my fiction had changed anything in the culture and the answer is no. Sure, there's been some scandal, but… — Philip Roth Copy Share
