Philip RothThinkers

The Angel is never uncontaminated.

Circumcision is the symbolic mark by which one's identity is stamped as contingent, provisional, historical.

Finishing is difficult. The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

A First draft is having a floor under one's feet that one can walk on.

A Friend is someone who will hide you.

Life is just a short period of time in which you are alive.

Literature is not a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts.

Old age is not a battle; old age is a massacre.

Old age is not a battle; old age is a massacre.

Parenting is, for Jewish boys, always a domineering thing. A jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy until they die!

Satire is moral outrage transformed into comic art.