black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better.

Bernard Malamud

As long as a man stays alive he can’t tell what chances will pop up next. But a dead man signs no checks.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Long Men Perseverance
Space plus whatever you feel equals more whatever you feel, marvelous for happiness, God save you otherwise.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Happiness Plus Space
I love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes it throws in a load of fish.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Metaphor Sometimes Two
We’re persecuted in the most civilized languages.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Civilized Language Persecuted
How one works, assuming he’s disciplined, doesn’t matter.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Assuming Discipline Matter Works
When I don’t feel hurt, I hope they bury me.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Bury Feels Hope Hurt
If your train’s on the wrong track every station you come to is the wrong station.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Stations Track Train
Tomorrow the world is not the same as today, though God listens with the same ear.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Change Ears World
A writer has to surprise himself to be worth reading.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Reading Surprise Worth
You see in others who you are.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Identity Who You Are
The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Accept Book Imperfect Uncertain Until
Teach yourself to work in uncertainty.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Teaching Uncertainty Writing
I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Confusion Giving Order
What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Suffering Taught Uselessness
Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Pleasure Revision Writing
A man is an island in the only sense that matters, not an easy way to be. We live in mystery, a cosmos of separate lonely bodies, men, insects, stars. It is all loneliness and men know it best.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Insects Loneliness Lonely Matter Men Stars

The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bernard Malamud Quotes