Not to be rich, not to be famous, not to be mighty, not even to be happy, but to be civilized--that was the dream of his life.

— Philip Roth

Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.

— Philip Roth

Old age isn't a battle old age is a massacre.

— Philip Roth

One’s story isn’t a skin to be shed— it’s inescapable, one’s body and blood. You go on pumping it out till you die, the story veined with the themes of your life, the ever-recurring story that’s at once your invention and the invention of you.

— Philip Roth

Other people's weakness can destroy you just as much as their strength can. Weak people are not harmless. Their weakness can be their strength.

— Philip Roth

People are unjust to anger - it can be enlivening and a lot of fun.

— Philip Roth

She thinks, I'm telling him who I am. He's interested in who I am. That is true, but I am curious about who she is because I want to fuck her.

— Philip Roth

Simple is never that simple.

— Philip Roth

Simple was never that simple. Still, the self-questioning did take some time to reach him. And if there's anything worse than self-questioning coming too early in life, it's self-questioning coming too late.

— Philip Roth

Stunned by how little he'd gotten over her, and she'd gotten over him, he walked away understanding, as outside his reading in classical Greek drama he'd never had to be understood before, how easily life can be one thing rather than another and how accidentally a destiny is made...

— Philip Roth