A man had to learn, it was his nature.
BERNARD MALAMUDA writer has to surprise himself to be worth reading.
More Bernard Malamud Quotes
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You can’t eat language but it eases thirst.
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The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course
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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.
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Charity you can give even when you haven’t got.
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For misery don’t blame God. He gives the food but we cook it.
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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 has to construct, invent, his freedom.
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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.
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Politics isn’t in my nature.
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You could not pity anything if you weren’t a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention.
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Life is a tragedy full of joy.
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As long as a man stays alive he can’t tell what chances will pop up next. But a dead man signs no checks.
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In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams.
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The past exudes legend: one can’t make pure clay of time’s mud.
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And if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small things to offer – he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.
BERNARD MALAMUD







