I don't know any writer for whom it comes easily. Maybe John Updike - a story would just seem to come to him whole, you know, out of a personal experience. But the rest of us, I think, are not so lucky, and I had to work hard, yeah.
Interpretation
Writing is often a difficult and laborious process, not something that comes easily to everyone.
In this quote, Philip Roth reflects on the nature of writing and the fact that, contrary to the perception that some writers may have an effortless connection to their craft, many writers face significant challenges and must exert considerable effort to produce their work. He acknowledges that while some, like John Updike, may have an innate talent for storytelling, the majority of writers struggle and must work hard to overcome obstacles in their creative process.
In practice
In a speech about the challenges of creative work, one might say, 'As Philip Roth pointed out, writing is not easy for everyone; it requires hard work and perseverance.'
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.
If you've been fortunate enough to do a film that appeals to the entire family, that's the audience that's probably going to come back to you in something else.
Style is wearing an evening dress to McDonald's, wearing heels to play football. It is personality, confidence and seduction.
The business of art lies just in this, -- to make that understood and felt which, in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible.
There isn’t any particular relationship between the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.
It's a maddening thing in itself to look at an old poem of yours. To translate it is even more maddening.
To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.
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