Philip Roth Quotes

I spend my life writing fiction, so reading fiction isn't much of an escape. That's not always true, but I don't read much contemporary fiction.

There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.

I like reading a lot. Jeffrey Archer and Robert Ludlum are my favourite authors. I love making realistic cinema, so I read non-fiction more.

Cut quarrels out of literature, and you will have very little history or drama or fiction or epic poetry left.

The essayist has to follow a certain intellectual pattern. The novelist has the advantage of using fantasy, of being subjective.

I am a fictionalizing philosopher, not a novelist.

I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just a long narrative form. What you use that long narrative form for can be very different.

Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science.

My books aren't autobiographical.

Fiction needs writers and readers, and writers should cultivate both.

I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

The thing I am attracted to is just good writing and stories that are based somewhat in reality.

I think the short story is a very underrated art form. We know that novels deserve respect.

There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction.

I have heard Science Fiction and Fantasy referred to as the fiction of ideas, and I like that definition, but it's the mainstream public that chooses my books for the most part.

Short stories are fiction's R & D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for.

Though my stories aren't autobiographical, I do sometimes use things from my life.

All novels must be autobiographical because I am the only material that I know. All of the characters are me. But at the same time, a novel is never autobiographical even if it describes the life of the author. Literary writing is a completely different medium.

While growing up, I always had to depend on foreign authors for page-turners. I think of myself as a commercial writer, and my job is simple to entertain you.

I like novelists who can create other interesting worlds.

I read very widely, both non-fiction and fiction, so I don't think there's a single writer who influences me.

My major allegiance has been to storytelling, not to history.

I was totally absorbed in the real world, the politics, the history, the news, and I just couldn't find my way into the fictional world... When I finally could return to writing the novel, it was in fits and starts.

My novels are all ideas.

I really began to love to read while in high school, and my favorite authors were my heroes: J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut.