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My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn’t just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you’ve got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren’t only bombs and bullets — no, they’re little gifts, containing meanings!

— Philip Roth Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

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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.

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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.