"It's human to have a secret, but it's just as human to reveal it sooner or later."
- Philip Roth
"I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. ..."
"You have a conscience, and a conscience is a valuable attribute, but not if it begins to make you think you were to blame for what is far beyond the scope of your responsibility."
"He was trying hard to continue to exist as himself despite the unlikeliness of everything."
"What are you? Do you know? What you are is you're always trying to smooth everything over. What you are is always trying to be moderate. What you are is never telling the truth if you think it's going..."
"Memories particularly of when they weren’t being what parents are nine-tenths of the time, the taskmasters, the examples, the moral authorities, the nags of pick-that-up and you’re-going-to-be-late, k..."
"None of us ate together: my Aunt Gladys ate at five o’clock, my cousin Susan at five-thirty, me at six, and my uncle at six-thirty. There is nothing to explain this beyond the fact that my aunt is cra..."
"Simple is never that simple."
"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."
"For discipline is imposed not just on oneself but on those in one's orbit."