Philip Roth Quotes
Writing, for me, was a feat of self-preservation. If I did not do it, I would die. So I did it. Obstinacy, not talent, saved my life.
Quotes to Explore
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I have cravings all the time, even when I'm not pregnant.
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I breeze through Twitter - I look at the mentions, the pictures, the videos.
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In the investment business, you must expect to be wrong.
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Bigotry toward any faith community cannot have any place in civilized society anywhere in the world.
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There's nowhere like Detroit; it's a modern necropolis: all these art deco masterpieces crumbling away.
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I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
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Most Americans probably have no idea how hostile anti-abortion sidewalk counseling outside clinics can be. There's a reason pro-choicers volunteer to escort patients as they make their way past angry crowds to the clinic door.
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Both my parents are immigrants. I've seen different struggles they've had. There's a reason you don't see me using accents. I don't do impressions of my folks. When I'm doing a crappy impression of my folks, and you're laughing, I'm thinking, 'When my parents talk to people, when they walk away do people do impressions of them? Do they laugh?'
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Back in the 1960s, I got a superb education for very little money. The bill for my first year at Harpur College in New York was a few hundred dollars.
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Punishment cannot heal spirits, can only break them.
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The truth, it is said, is rarely pure or simple, yet genetics can at times seem seductively transparent.
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I am that guy who will say things that people seem to think is a little edgy, a little racy.
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I've turned down twentysomething million dollars for movies.
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It was sort of that in-between area when people don't talk about their personal lives. That's the kind of life I think Kerry would be living now if it weren't for the Lopez character sort of outing her.
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Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theatres, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Noble Booksellers.
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It is one thing to tell the citizens of some faraway country to go to hell, but it is another to do the same to your own citizens, who are supposedly your ultimate sovereigns.
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Love is so unconditional; love liberates; love is the reason why I do what I do, and so I think it is the greatest gift we have.
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There can be a lot of mind games going on between the players. When you're about to serve, people will try to throw you off your rhythm by taking a walk. If you're tired, you can't show that at all to an opponent.
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It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists... I've worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.
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A picture is like a prayer.
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I'm always glad when people come together to help each other - whether they're raising money for somebody in a bad situation or making a creative piece like a song.
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People often complain that music is too ambiguous, that what they should think when they hear it is so unclear, whereas everyone understands words. With me, it is exactly the opposite, and not only with regard to an entire speech but also with individual words.
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Writing, for me, was a feat of self-preservation. If I did not do it, I would die. So I did it. Obstinacy, not talent, saved my life.
