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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

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
Those who write about life, reflect about life. you see in others who you are.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Who You Are Writing
In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Ate Dream Success
A man had to learn, it was his nature.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Learning Men Nature
No use fanning up hot coals when you have to walk across them.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Across Anger Coal Hot
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
First drafts are for learning what your story is about.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Draft Firsts Learn Stories
We’re persecuted in the most civilized languages.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Civilized Language Persecuted
To any writer: Teach yourself to work in uncertainty. Many writers are anxious when they begin, or try something new.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Character Discipline Writing
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 MALAMUD

Clay Past Recapture Time
You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Down Sitting Writing
A man has to construct, invent, his freedom.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Constructs Freedom Invent Men
There is in the darkness a unity, if you will, that cannot be achieved in any other environment, a blending of self with what the self perceives, and exquisite mystical experience.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Dark Experiences Mystical Self
All men are Jews, though few men know it.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Jew Knows Men
The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Freedom Others Purpose
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

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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