Philip roth

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.

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

Life is just a short period of time in which you are alive.

A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy until they die!

I write fiction and I'm told it's autobiography, I write autobiography and I'm told it's fiction, so since I'm so dim and they're so smart, let them decide what it is or it isn't.

Nothing keeps its promise.

Fear tends to manifest itself much more quickly than greed, so volatile markets tend to be on the downside. In up markets, volatility tends to gradually decline.

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

Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?