The past exudes legend: one can’t make pure clay of time’s mud. There is no life that can be recaptured wholly; as it was.Which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction.
BERNARD MALAMUDAs long as a man stays alive he can’t tell what chances will pop up next. But a dead man signs no checks.
More Bernard Malamud Quotes
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We didn’t starve but nobody ate chicken unless we were sick or the chicken was.
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In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams.
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There are no wrong books. What’s wrong is the fear of them.
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The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better.
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Writers who can’t invent stories often substitute style for narrative. They remind me of the painter who couldn’t paint people, so he painted chairs.
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A man had to learn, it was his nature.
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One’s fantasy goes for a walk and returns with a bride.
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You see in others who you are.
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We can’t all be friends and relatives as the world is; most of us have to be strangers.
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Comedy, I imagine, is harder to do consistently than tragedy, but I like it spiced in the wine of sadness.
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I don’t think you can do anything for anyone without giving up something of your own.
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I sometimes confuse myself with the little I know.
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I fix what’s broken – except in the heart.
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The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.
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Nationality isn’t soul.
BERNARD MALAMUD