Quotes from The Dying Animal

“The only obsession everyone wants: 'love.' People think that in falling in love they make themselves whole? The Platonic union of souls? I think otherwise. I think you're whole before you begin. And the love fractures you. You're whole, and then you're cracked open. ”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Stop worrying about growing old. And think about growing up.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“You tasted it. Isn't that enough? Of what do you ever get more than a taste? That's all we're given in life, that's all we're given of life. A taste. There is no more.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“These girls with old gents don't do it despite the age—they're drawn to the age, they do it for the age. Why? In Consuela's case, because the vast difference in age gives her permission to submit, I think. My age and my
status give her, rationally, the license to surrender, and surrendering in bed is a not unpleasant sensation. But simultaneously, to give yourself over intimately to a much, much older man provides this sort of younger woman with authority of a kind she cannot get in a sexual arrangement with a younger man. She gets both the pleasures of submission and the pleasures of mastery.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“No matter how much you know, no matter how much you think, no matter how much you plot and you connive and you plan, you're not superior to sex. It's a very risky game. A man wouldn't have two-thirds of the problems he has if he didn't venture off to get fucked. It's sex that disorders our normally ordered lives.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Like all enjoyable things, you see, it has unenjoyable parts to it.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Who are the new people when you do meet them? They're the same old people in masks.
There's nothing new about them at all. They're people.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Now, I’m very vulnerable to female beauty, as you know. Everybody’s defenseless against something, and that’s it for me. I see it and it blinds me to everything else.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Worship me, she says, worship the mistery of the bleeding goddess, and you do it. You stop at nothing. You lick it. You consume it. You digest it. She penetrates you.
What next, David? A glass of her urine. How long before you would have begged for her feces? I'm not against it because it's unhygienic.
I'm not against it because it's disgusting. I'm against it because it's falling in love. The only obession everybody wants: 'love'. People think that in falling in love they make themselves whole? The Platonic union of souls? I think otherwise. I think you're whole before you begin. And the love fractures you. You're whole, and then you're cracked open. She was a foreign body introduced into your wholeness. And for a year and a half you struggled to incorporate it. But you'll never be whole until you expel it. You either get rid of it or incorporate it through self-distortion.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“To those not yet old, being old means you’ve been. But being old also means that despite, in addition to, and in excess of your beenness, you still are. Your beenness is very much alive. You still are, and one is as haunted by the still-being and its fullness as by the having-already-been, by the pastness. Think of old age this way: it’s just an everyday fact that one’s life is at stake.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“No importa cuánto sepas, no importa cuánto pienses, no importa cuánto maquines, finjas y planees, no estás por encima del sexo. Es un juego muy arriesgado. Uno no tendría dos tercios de los problemas que tiene si no corriera el albur de la jodienda. El sexo es lo que desordena nuestras vidas normalmente ordenadas.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“The loveliest fairy tale of childhood is that everything happens in order.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“فالهاجس الوحيد الذي يرغبه كل فرد : "حب"
أيظن الناس أنهم بالوقوع في الحب يصنعون الاكتمال؟ التوحد الأفلاطوني للأرواح ؟
أعتقد خلاف ذلك .”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“الجسد يحوي الكثيرمن قصص الحياة تماما مثل المخ .

ــــــ إدنا أوه براين”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“إن شك المرء ، سخريته ، الإحساس السليم السياسي الثقافي ، الذي يحفظه بعيدا عن التحركات الجماعية ، كان درعا واقيا .”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Упадок и Возвышение Презерватива — так бы я окрестил историю сексуальности во второй половине XX столетия.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Каждая новая выходка не прибавляет мне сил, а, напротив, отнимает последние, а я все не унимаюсь”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Но если бы мы взялись обсудить эту проблему хотя бы с теми же собаками, наверняка узнали бы, что и в их среде встречаются — пусть и в несколько упрощенной форме — эти чудовищные извращения: персонифицированное желание, слепая привязанность, стремление к безраздельному обладанию и даже любовь.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Non troppi anni fa c'era un modo prefabbricato di essere vecchi, proprio come c'era un modo prefabbricato di essere giovani. Non sono più in vigore, né l'uno né l'altro. Sul permissibile c'è stata una grande lotta; e un grande ribaltamento. Nondimeno, un uomo di settantanni dovrebbe ancora lasciarsi coinvolgere nell'aspetto carnale della commedia umana? Essere, senz'alcuna contrizione, un vecchio secolare ancora sensibile a ciò che di umanamente eccitante lo circonda? Non è la condizione che una volta era simboleggiata dalla pipa e dalla sedia a dondolo. Forse è ancora un po' un affronto, per la gente, rifiutarsi di ubbidire al vecchio orologio della vita. Capisco di non poter contare sul virtuoso rispetto degli altri adulti. Ma cosa posso farci se, per quello che mi riguarda, non ci si mette mai l'animo in pace, mai, per vecchio che uno sia?”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“«Да и откуда им взяться, новым людям? Они только с виду новые. А на самом деле всё те же старые, только надели маску. В них нет и не может быть никакой новизны. Они люди, а люди, они и есть люди!»”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

About the author

Popular quotes

“when you want to start something you just have to go out there and do it. There’s no point thinking about it.’ And as he very famously said ‘SCREW IT, LET’S DO IT.”
― Varun Agarwal, quote from How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company

“People who asked questions didn't necessary like being asked questions.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from Acceptance

“Grace was joining him at his request, to assist him in staring out at the swamp while they talked about Area X. Because he'd thought a change of setting - leaving the confines of the concrete coffin - might help soften her animosity. Before he realized just how truly hellish and prehistoric the landscape was, and thus now pre-hysterical as well. Look out upon this mosquito orgy, and warm to me, Grace.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from Authority

“دون عويلٍ أو غيظ، سيثلم الزمن حدّ أكثر السيوف بطولة”
― Jorge Luis Borges, quote from Dreamtigers

“If only memory were a library with everything stored where it should be. If only you could walk to the desk and say to the assistant, I’d like to return the painful memories about David Fry or indeed his mother and take out some happier ones, please. About stickleback fishing with my father. Or picnicking on the banks of the Cherwell when I was a student. And the assistant would say, Certainly, madam. We have all those. Under “F” for “Fishing.” As well as “P” for “Picnicking.” You’ll find them on your left.”
― Rachel Joyce, quote from The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

Interesting books

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.