Philip Roth Quotes About Books

Quotes about: Books

• A life of writing books is a trying adventure in which you cannot find out where you are unless you lose your way.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Writing, Adventure

  Philip Roth, Ross Miller (2008). “Novels & other narratives, 1986-1991”

• 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.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Years, Done

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I think I write or publish as much as I do because I can bear being without a book to work on. But routinely when I finish a book, I think, "What will I do? Where will I get an idea?" And a kind of low-level panic sets in. And then eventually something happens. I don't know. If I knew how it happened I would repeat the process, but I don't know - something just occurs to me.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• The book really comes to life in the rewriting.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Rewriting

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I wouldn't mind writing a long book which is going to occupy me for the rest of my life.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Writing, Long

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• 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.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Typewriters, Feet

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• When I have a first draft, I have a floor under my feet that I can walk on. 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.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Helping, Computer

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

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

  Philip Roth

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.

  Philip Roth

  Book, World, Publish

  Philip Roth, George John Searles (1992). “Conversations with Philip Roth”, p.111, Univ. Press of Mississippi

• The book can't compete with the screen. It couldn't compete beginning with the movie screen. It couldn't compete with the television screen and it can't compete with the computer screen I don't think. And now we have all those screens so against all those screens I think the book can't measure up.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Thinking, Television

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I would be wonderful with a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot. A 100-year moratorium on insufferable literary talk. You should let people fight with the books on their own and rediscover what they are and what they are not. Anything other than this talk.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Fighting, Years

  "'It No Longer Feels a Great Injustice That I Have to Die'". Interview with Martin Krasnik, www.theguardian.com. December 14, 2005.

• Each book starts from ashes really. I don't feel that I have this to say or that to say or this story to tell or that story to tell, but I want to be occupied with the writing process while I'm living.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Writing, Ashes

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• Each book starts from ashes.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Writing, Ashes

  "Philip Roth Unbound". Interview with Tina Brown, www.thedailybeast.com. October 30, 2009.

• What I would really love to happen to me would be if I came upon an idea that would keep me busy until I die so I wouldn't have to go through the business of thinking up a new book. But I wouldn't mind writing a long book which is going to occupy me for the rest of my life.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• You asked if I thought my fiction had changed anything in the culture and the answer is no. Sure, there's been some scandal, but people are scandalized all the time; it's a way of life for them. It doesn't mean a thing. If you ask if I want my fiction to change anything in the culture, the answer is still no. What I want is to possess my readers while they are reading my book — if I can, to possess them in ways that other writers don't. Then let them return, just as they were, to a world where everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt, and control them.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Reading, Mean

  Philip Roth, George John Searles (1992). “Conversations with Philip Roth”, Univ Pr of Mississippi

• I work just as much as I always worked. And I can't explain the fact that there have been a series of books coming rather regularly out of me. 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.

  Philip Roth

  Book, Done, Publish

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

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