509 Quotes by Philip Roth

And how long will the American people stand for this treachery perpetrated by their elected president? How long will Americans remain asleep while their cherished Constitution is torn to shreds.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you – it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

Don’t judge it. Just write it. Don’t judge it. It’s not for you to judge it.

The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It’s getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That’s how we know we’re alive: we’re wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget about being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that – well, lucky you.

There is no protest to be lodged against loneliness – not all the bombing campaigns in history have made a dent in it. The most lethal of manmade explosives can’t touch it. Stand in awe not of Communism, my idiot child, but of ordinary, everyday loneliness.

Others? He dares to call us others? He’s the other. The one who looks most American – and he’s the one who is least American! The man is unfit. He shouldn’t be there. He shouldn’t be there, and it’s as simple as that!

There’s a plot afoot all right, and I’ll gladly name the forces propelling it – hysteria, ignorance, malice, stupidity, hatred, and fear.

Our homeland was America. Then the Republicans nominated Lindbergh and everything changed.

You can’t write good satirical fiction in America because reality will quickly outdo anything you might invent.