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Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.

— Philip Roth The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography (1988)

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More quotes by Philip Roth

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

The Counterlife (1986)

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I am a theater and nothing more than a theater.

The Counterlife (1986)

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.

Deception: A Novel (1990)

When you publish a book, it’s the world’s book. The world edits it.

All Philip Roth quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Philip Roth (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.