Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.
BERNARD MALAMUDTeach yourself to work in uncertainty.
More Bernard Malamud Quotes
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The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
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.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
Prufrock had measured out his life with measuring spoons; Dubin, in books resurrecting the lives of others.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
One often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempt to understand.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
It was all those biographies in me yelling, ‘We want out. We want to tell you what we’ve done to you.’
BERNARD MALAMUD -
First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to re-form it….
BERNARD MALAMUD -
Politics isn’t in my nature.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder.
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All men are Jews, though few men know it.
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If your train’s on the wrong track every station you come to is the wrong station.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
You see in others who you are.
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Life is a tragedy full of joy.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
I work with language. I love the flowers of afterthought.
BERNARD MALAMUD -
… it’s possible to let love fly by like a cloud in a windy sky if one is too timid, or perhaps unable to believe he is entitled to good fortune.
BERNARD MALAMUD