Quotes from book
Portnoy's Complaint

Name: Portnoy's Complaint
Author: Philip Roth

Portnoy's Complaint is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth. Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation using various props including a piece of liver. The novel tells the humorous monologue of "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor," who confesses to his psychoanalyst in "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language." Many of its characteristics went on to become Roth trademarks.In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Portnoy's Complaint 52nd on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time included this novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005."

“… and then this amazing creature -to whom no one has ever said "Shah!" or "I only hope your children will do the same to you someday!"”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

“I am marked like a road map from head to toe with my repressions. You can travel the length and breadth of my body over superhighways of shame and inhibition and fear.”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

“Doctor doctor, what do you say, lets put the id back in yid”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint

“You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint

“Dreams? If only they had been! But I don't need dreams, Doctor, that's why I hardly have them—because I have this life instead. With me it all happens in broad daylight!”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

“It’s a family joke that when I was a tiny child I turned from the window out of which I was watching a snowstorm, and hopefully asked, "Momma, do we believe in winter?"”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Portnoy's Complaint (1969)
Variant: It’s a family joke that when I was a tiny child I turned from the window out of which I was watching a snowstorm, and hopefully asked, "Momma, do we believe in winter?

“I'm not trying to turn you into a bourgeois, Naomi. If the bed is too luxurious, we can do it on the floor.”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

“A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die.”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

“Only in America, Rabbi Golden, do these peasants, our mothers, get their hair dyed platinum at the age of sixty, and walk up and down Collins Avenue in Florida in pedalpushers and mink stoles — and with opinions on every subject under the sun. It isn’t their fault they were given a gift like speech — look, if cows could talk, they would say things just as idiotic.”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Part 5: "Cunt Crazy"
Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

“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 book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint (1969), Ch. 4: "The Most Prevalent Form of Degradation in Erotic Life"