PHILIP ROTH

American Masters explores the life and career of Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning novelist Philip Roth, often referred to as the greatest living American writer. Reclusive and diffident, Roth grants very few interviews, but for the first time, allowed a journalist to spend 10 ...

Portnoy’s Complaint: the book that made Philip Roth.

Philip Roth reads from his book, Portnoy’s Complaint. As Martha Saxton wrote in Literary Guild in 1974, it's the story of "a lust-ridden, mother addicted young Jewish bachelor."

The writing process of Philip Roth: “I invent a character as I go along,” he says. “You must find everything about this man. Who he is, where he’s from, what he’s done, what his family is.” Roth says, “There’s a journalistic side to writing novels,” ...

Philip Roth reads from his book, American Pastoral (1997). It's Roth's elegy for the 20th Century's promises of prosperity, civic order and domestic bliss.

Philip Roth on obscenity. While it's not all too uncommon for a writer to turn to the obscene from time to time, Roth made it a sort of trademark -- especially in his book, Portnoy's Complaint (1969).

Philip Roth talks about his friendship with the Italian writer Primo Levi, author of If This Is a Man (1947) and The Periodic Table (1975).

Philip Roth thinks the screen -- the movie screen, the TV screen, the computer screen -- will take the "serious readers" away from serious writing.

Philip Roth on religion: "I don't get it... I don't need it. I don't want it."

Philip Roth remembers his brother.