Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.
Interpretation
Loving someone means appreciating their resilience during tough times.
This quote by Philip Roth emphasizes that true love is shown when someone supports and admires another person's ability to face difficult challenges. It suggests that love is about being there for someone and recognizing their strength, not necessarily expecting grand acts of bravery or heroism, but rather a steadfastness and willingness to engage with life’s hardships.
In practice
During a speech at a wedding, one might say, 'True love is evident when you see your partner being game in the face of adversity.'
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.
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.
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
When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.
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.
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.
He'll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to loved or hated again.
She was like a lone angel floating above the surface of the earth, laughing with delight because she could fly but crying out of loneliness.
But, drawn to her at that moment, he felt a quiet like the voice of the rain flow over him. He knew well enough that for her it was in fact no waste of effort, but somehow the final determination that it was had the effect of distilling and purifying the woman's existence.
Look into a mirror, make eye contact with yourself, and say "I love me" as many times as possible during the day.
In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror.
Forgive yourself and welcome love back into your life.
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