Quotes from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories

Philip Roth ·  320 pages

Rating: (13.6K votes)


“Actually we did not have the feelings we said we had until we spoke them--at least I didn't; to phrase them was to invent them and own them.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


“I did not want to voice a word that would lift the cover and reveal that hideous emotion I always felt for her, the underside of love.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


“How far back must you go to discover the beginning of trouble?”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


“Curiously, the darkness seemed to have something to do with Harriet, Ron's intended, and I thought for a time that it was simply the reality of Harriet's arrival that had dramatized the passing of time: we had been talking about it and now suddenly it was here — just as Brenda's departure would be here before we knew it.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


“... a nervous, undernourished girl who continually looked down the front of her gown as though there was some sort of construction project going on under her clothes.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories



“old Blotnik had been mumbling so steadily for so many years, Ozzie suspected he had memorized the prayers and forgotten all about God. “It”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


“None of us ate together: my Aunt Gladys ate at five o’clock, my cousin Susan at five-thirty, me at six, and my uncle at six-thirty. There is nothing to explain this beyond the fact that my aunt is crazy.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


“We’ll go to the most posh gynecologist in New York. One who gets Harper’s Bazaar for the reception room. How does that sound?”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


“LaHill was a dark, burly fellow whose hair curled out of his clothes wherever it could.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories


About the author

Philip Roth
Born place: in Newark, New Jersey, The United States
Born date March 19, 1933
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“If this earth should ever be destroyed, it will be by desire, by the lust of pleasure and self-gratification, by greed of the green frog skin, by people who are mindful of their own self, forgetting about the wants of others.”
― John (Fire) Lame Deer, quote from Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions


“Until we begin to put pen to paper, we historically do not exist.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“...a book need never die and should not be killed; books were the immortal part of man.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from Farnham's Freehold


“Yes,” he said. “But I wonder . . . I’ve a peculiar feeling that I may never see you again. It is as if I were one of those minor characters in a melodrama who gets shuffled offstage without ever learning how things turn out.”

“I can appreciate the feeling,” I said. “My own role sometimes makes me want to strangle the author. But look at it this way: inside stories seldom live up to one’s expectations. Usually they are grubby little things, reducing down to the basest of motives when all is known. Conjectures and illusions are often the better possessions.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Sign of the Unicorn


“Impossible, I realize, to enter another’s solitude. If it is true that we can ever come to know another human being, even to a small degree, it is only to the extent that he is willing to make himself known. A man will say: I am cold. Or else he will say nothing, and we will see him shivering. Either way, we will know that he is cold. But what of the man who says nothing and does not shiver? Where all is intractable, here all is hermetic and evasive, one can do no more than observe. But whether one can make sense of what he observes is another matter entirely”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Invention of Solitude


Interesting books

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
(313.9K)
Into Thin Air: A Per...
by Jon Krakauer
The Arabian Nights
(60.5K)
I Am Number Four
(282.6K)
I Am Number Four
by Pittacus Lore
The Hours
(112K)
The Hours
by Michael Cunningham
Twelfth Night
(135.8K)
Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare
I Capture the Castle
(69.7K)
I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.