Punching bag Quote by Philip Roth

“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

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

Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.

— Philip Roth

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

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

“There are no reasons. She is obliged to be as she is. We all are. Reasons are in books.”

— Philip Roth

“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

The book really comes to life in the rewriting.

— Philip Roth

“What is astonishing is that we, who had no idea how anything was going to turn out, now know exactly what happened.”

— Philip Roth

“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

I am the Raskolnikov of jerking off – the sticky evidence is everywhere!

— Philip Roth

“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