I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.
Philip RothRead
American society [...] not only sanctions gross and unfair relations among men, but it encourages them. Now, can that be denied? No. Rivalry, competition, envy, jealousy, all that is malignant in human character is nourished by the system. Possession, money, property--on such corrupt standards as these do you people measure happiness and success.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques American society for promoting negative traits such as envy and competition as measures of success and happiness.
Philip Roth's quote reflects on the inherent flaws in American society, suggesting that it not only allows but actively promotes harmful characteristics such as rivalry and jealousy among individuals. He argues that societal values centered around material possessions and wealth corrupt the true understanding of happiness and success, indicating that the prevailing standards are fundamentally flawed and detrimental to human relationships.
Themes
SocietyHappinessSuccessEnvyCompetitionWealth
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about societal values at a community center event.
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All quotes →Everybody who flashed the signs of loyalty he took to be loyal. Everybody who flashed the signs of intelligence he took to be intelligent. And so he had failed to see into his daughter, failed to see into his wife, failed to see into his one and only mistress—probably had never even begun to see into himself
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When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.
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It isn't that you subordinate your ideas to the force of the facts in autobiography but that you construct a sequence of stories to bind up the facts with a persuasive hypothesis that unravels your history's meaning.
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That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader.
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It's absolutely fantastic. When I was a kid, my father was always trying to tell me how to be a man, and he said to me, I was maybe 9, and he said to me, 'Philip, whenever you take a nap, take your clothes off, put a blanket on you, and you're going to sleep better.' Well, as with everything, he was right. ... Then the best part of it is that when you wake up, for the first 15 seconds, you have no idea where you are. You're just alive. That's all you know. And it's bliss, it's absolute bliss.
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