You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you. — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“I don't believe lies are something to stand on. I believe lies are something to build on.” — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
There is truth and then again there is truth. For all that the world is full of people who go around believing… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
The only way to have a funeral is to invite everyone who ever knew the person and just wait for the accident… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“But in Old Rimrock, NJ, in 1995, when the Ivan Ilyches come trooping back to lunch at the clubhouse after their morning… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“What are you? Do you know? What you are is you’re always trying to smooth everything over. What you are is always… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“And was that not bound to happen? Eventually, must not the truth prevail? Oh, it had not been in vain then that… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“I don't know whether you're lying to me or you're telling me the truth. But if you're telling me the truth, that… — 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
