I was saddened to hear the news last night that Philip Roth has died. Here are a few of the wisdoms I learned from reading his books:
On reading:
“Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.” – from Conversations with Philip Roth
On Writing:
“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” – from “Works in Progress” in The New York Times Book Review, July 15, 1979
‘I don’t ask writers about their work habits. I really don’t care. Joyce Carol Oates says somewhere that when writers ask each other what time they start working and when they finish and how much time they take for lunch, they’re actually trying to find out, “Is he as crazy as I am?” I don’t need that question answered.’ – from Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews,
On Life:
“The only obsession everyone wants: ‘love.’ People think that in falling in love they make themselves whole? The Platonic union of souls? I think otherwise. I think you’re whole before you begin. And the love fractures you. You’re whole, and then you’re cracked open.” – from The Dying Animal
“Life is just a short period of time in which you are alive.” – from American Pastoral
Roth didn’t believe in God, but no doubt he has achieved some sort of immortality through his writing. – Meg
