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Life is a tragedy full of joy.

Bernard Malamud

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 MALAMUD

Ideas Reform Revision Work Writing
Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Pleasure Revision Writing
The short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime
BERNARD MALAMUD

Pages Self Stories
Where to look if you’ve lost your mind?
BERNARD MALAMUD

Looks Lost Mind
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
A man has to construct, invent, his freedom.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Constructs Freedom Invent Men
The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Freedom Others Purpose
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

People Stories Style
A writer has to surprise himself to be worth reading.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Reading Surprise Worth
We’re persecuted in the most civilized languages.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Civilized Language Persecuted
We didn’t starve but nobody ate chicken unless we were sick or the chicken was.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Poor Poverty Sick
I fix what’s broken – except in the heart.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Broken Expect Heart
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

Apparteally Attempt Confusion Experience Time Uncontrolled
The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course
BERNARD MALAMUD

Course Normal Steps
The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly.
BERNARD MALAMUD

Ideas Moving Writing

Life is a tragedy full of joy.

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Life is a tragedy full of joy.

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