Home / Quotes / Quote by Philip Roth

Quote by Philip Roth

“I work most days and if you work most days and you get at least a page done a day, then at the end of the year you have 365. So the pages accumulate and then I publish the books.”

Quote by Philip Roth

Author

Philip Roth (1933-2018) was one of America's most influential contemporary novelists, renowned for his profound explorations of Jewish-American identity, sexuality, politics, and the human condition. His breakthrough work, "Portnoy's Complaint" (1969), became a landmark in American literature. Roth received two National Book Awards and was a multiple-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. Over his six-decade career, he published more than 30 books that significantly shaped American fiction. He passed away in New York City on May 22, 2018, at age 85. more

You May Also Like

“The book really comes to life in the rewriting.”

Author:Philip Roth

“When I have a first draft, I have a floor under my feet that I can walk on. And then, especially with the help of the computer, rewriting is so easy to do with the computer, much easier than it used to be with the typewriter. So the books go through numerous drafts.”

Firsts I Can Book Helping Used Easy Walks Feet Easier Computer Used To Be Typewriters Rewriting

Author:Philip Roth

“I think I write or publish as much as I do because I can bear being without a book to work on.”

Thinking Writing I Can Book Bears Publish Because I Can

Author:Philip Roth

“I always had a hard time with fiction. It does feel like driving a car in a clown suit. You're going somewhere, but you're in costume, and you're not really fooling anybody. You're the guy in costume, and everybody's supposed to forget that and go along with you. Obviously, it can work, it works all the time - well, it doesn't always work. Still, no matter what, I'm always looking at the form and addressing it, not ignoring it.”

Feels Wells Doe Stills Matter Hard Form Guy Forget Fiction Car No Matter What Driving Suits Hard Times Working It Costumes Clown Suits You

Author:Dave Eggers

“I've always been interested in the form itself, so I always feel like I've never been good at going ahead with the artifice and not acknowledging the self in the artistic process, and not acknowledging the absurdity of pretending that's required in fiction.”

Feels Self Form Process Fiction Artistic Pretending Absurdity Artifice Artistic Process

Author:Dave Eggers

“Loneliness is just a thing that I'm not personally interested in. So far, it hasn't been on my docket of things to write about.”

Writing Loneliness

Author:Dave Eggers

“I'm never a fan of the sociopathic kind of reviewing, people who are sort of self-immolating and have social problems or whatever, and let it out in literary-criticism form. I just feel like book reviewing should be respectful and calm and not filled with bile.”

People Feels Should Kind Book Self Problem Form Social Fans Criticism Filled Calm Respectful Literary Criticism Social Problems Be Respectful Book Review

Author:Dave Eggers

“I don't hesitate to do nudity as an actor if it's done well.”

Ifs Wells Done Actors Nudity

Author:John Lithgow

“You have to overcome enormous self-consciousness, but nudity is about the strongest thing you can do in an acting performance. It's the most unsettling or the most comic or the most sexual.”

Self Can Do Acting Consciousness Performances Overcoming Enormous Comic Strongest Nudity Self Consciousness

Author:John Lithgow

“I look for every opportunity to mix comedy and horror and tragedy. I love catching audiences off-guard.”

Looks Opportunity Audience Comedy Horror Tragedy Catching

Author:John Lithgow