Quotes from Philip Roth

Da professore di letteratura fervidamente coscienzioso qual ero, ho sempre gradito finire l'ora con qualcosa di commovente che gli studenti potessero portare con sè dalla classe incontaminata, fuori, nel mondo corrotto di stuzzichini preconfezionati e pop star e droga.

He was just someone who had grown ugly, old, and embittered, one of billions.

The smile's refusal to recognize, let alone to sanction in himself, the savage obstinacy that seven decades of surviving requires of a man. As though anyone over ten believes you can subjugate with a smile, even one that kind and warm, all the things that are out to get you, with a smile hold it all together when the strong arm of the unforeseen comes crashing down on your head.

Había dos clases de hombres fuertes: los que eran como tío Monty y Abr Steinhem. , despiadados en su afán de ganar dinero, y los que eran como mi padre, implacablemente obedientes a su idea del juego limpio.

He did this despite its causing him to feel keenly not the presence he was seeking but rather the absence of one he'd never seen anywhere other than in photos

Sylvia Levov stoically and impatiently endured him, her only successful form of resistance being to freeze him out and live with the isolation—and see more of herself evaporating year by year.

Estas siempre enfadada con tu mama?" "La odio." "Por qué, Linda?" "Ella me odia a mí." "Her pressure's 120 over 100," said Sabbath.

He pronounces "death" like "debt.

Chaque fois que je levais les yeux je voyais mon petit ami complètement gaga parce que j'étais une reine de beauté à la noix! T'étais un vrai gosse! Il a fallu que tu me transformes en princesse! Eh ben, regarde où ça m'a menée. A l'asile! Elle chez les dingues, ta princesse!

Twist and shout, métetelo donde te quepa... eso y no La Internacional era su himno.

In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system.

It was all remarkable. Good-bye, remarkable. Egypt and Greece good-bye, and good-bye, Rome!

I never think in terms of expectations. My expectation is how to deal with bad news.

Trabalho - Certas pessoas anseiam por trabalho, qualquer trabalho, por mais pesado e desagradável que seja, a fim de drenar a dureza de suas vidas e afastar da mente os pensamentos homicidas...

The woods, the streams, the snow, the thaw, the spring, New England's spring, that surprise that is among the greatest reinvigorators of humankind on record.

A única obsessão que todos querem: 'amor'. As pessoas pensam que ao se apaixonar, elas se tornam inteiras? A união platônica de almas? Eu penso o contrário. Eu acho que você é inteiro antes de começar. E o amor quebra você. Você está inteiro, e então está quebrado.

You know what he did for a living before the war? Sold champagne. A liquor salesman, Sandy. A fake—a plutocrat and a thief and a fake. Even the 'von' in his name is a fake.

My right mind is just another name for my fears! My right mind is simply that inheritance of terror that I bring with me out of my ridiculous past! That tyrant, my superego, he should be strung up, that son of a bitch, hung by his fucking storm-trooper's boots till he's dead!

Father Coughlin, the Detroit-area priest who edited a right-wing weekly called Social Justice and whose anti-Semitic virulence aroused the passions of a sizable audience during the country's hard times.

These questions are futile to answer. Behind the answer there is another answer, and an answer behind that answer, and on and on.

Madamaska Falls, capital of caution, where the local population is content to be in raptures about changing the clock twice a year.

Words aren't only bombs and bullets—no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!

But wit or irony is like a hitch in his swing for a kid like the Swede, irony being a human consolation and beside the point if you're getting your way as a god.

Only rarely, at the end of our century, does life offer up a vision as pure and peaceful as this one: a solitary man on a bucket, fishing through eighteen inches of ice in a lake that's constantly turning over its water atop an arcadian mountain in America.