Philip Roth on facts

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.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you — it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

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

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan1927–2003Often credited to Unattributed

The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935

• Education

If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.