Quotes from Philip Roth

Something was on top of him that had called a halt to him. Something had turned him into a human platitude. Something had warned him: You must not run counter to anything.

There was no other explanation for such an illness in a man otherwise so young and fit. It was the consequence of failing to find the ruthlessness to take what he wanted instead of capitulating to what he should do.

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.

But there's no remaking reality

Just take it as it comes. Hold your ground and take it as it comes. There's no other way.

This is what happens when you write books. There's not just something that drives you to find out everything—something begins putting everything in your path.

A culpa em alguém como Bucky pode parecer absurda, porém é, de fato, inevitável. Uma pessoa como ele está condenada. Jamais irá corresponder ao ideal que carrega dentro de si. Nunca sabe onde termina sua responsabilidade. Jamais aceita seus limites porque, sobrecarregado com uma severa bondade natural que não lhe permite resignar-se ao sofrimento dos outros, nunca admitirá , sem se sentir culpado, que possa estar sujeito a alguma limitação

Franklin Delano Roosevelt commends "the reading of the Bible" to my brother. The way they got these kids to die. Commends.

Puoi superare qualunque cosa, anche se la fiducia è stata tradita, se ti viene confessato. Allora diventate compagni di vita in un modo diverso, ma è sempre possibile rimanere compagni. Ma mentire... Mentire significa esercitare un meschino, spregevole controllo sull'altra persona. Significa permettere che l'altra persona agisca in base a informazioni incomplete. Lasciare, in altri termini, che si umili.

There are a hundred different ways to hold someone's hand. There are the ways you hold a child's hand, the ways you hold a friend's hand, the ways you hold an elderly parent's hand, the ways you hold the hands of the departing and of the dying and of the dead.

Todo es un error -le dije-. ¿No es eso lo que me has estado diciendo? No existe más que error. Ahí está el meollo del mundo. Nadie encuentra su vida. Eso es la vida.

In September, you son of a bitch, I am going to be thirty years old! Correct, Monkey, correct! Which is precisely why it is you and not me who is responsible for your expectations and your dreams! Is that clear? you!

You can't expose that breast on the street. You can't have a breast exposed in the middle of Manhattan at twelve-fifteen at 116th Street and Broadway.

Some things you don't know why you do them.

Sabbath had the power, and he knew it, of being no one with anything much to lose.

The authority of beauty is a very irrational thing.

Qué profundo es el oído! Piensa en lo que significa comprender algo que solamente has oído. ¡El carácter casi divino del oído! ¿No es por lo menos un fenómeno semidivino verte ante las inequidades más profundas de una existencia humana por el sencillo procedimiento de permanecer sentado en la oscuridad, escuchando lo que te dicen?

Pills and pain. Aldomet for my blood pressure and Zantac for my gut. A to Z. Then you die.

He was supposed to get through dinner not thinking about the only things he could think about. He was supposed to do this forever.

They are there to uphold the law. There are still good men in this country.

In my own house my voice don't carry from the kitchen to the toilet.

Mientras permanecía allí sentado con sus colegas resultaba extraño pensar que unas personas tan bien educadas, unos profesionales tan civilizados, hubieran cedido en buen grado al venerable sueño humano de una situación en la que un solo hombre puede encarnar el mal. Sin embargo, existe esa necesidad, y es imperecedera y profunda.

It's never been easy to say what you really are, Mickey." "Oh, failure will do." "But at what?" "Failure at failing, for one.

When he is sick, every man wants his mother.