Bernard Malamud

A man had to learn, it was his nature.

— Bernard Malamud

Nationality isn't soul ...

— Bernard Malamud

A man has to construct, invent, his freedom.

— Bernard Malamud

Life is a tragedy full of joy.

— Bernard Malamud

Where to look if you've lost your mind?

— Bernard Malamud

“Nobody lived in Eden anymore.”

— Bernard Malamud

Politics isn't in my nature.

— Bernard Malamud

You can't eat language but it eases thirst.

— Bernard Malamud

“Without heroes we are all plain people and don't know how far it is we can go.”

— Bernard Malamud

The past exudes legend: one can't make pure clay of time's mud.

— Bernard Malamud

What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering.

— Bernard Malamud

Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go.

— Bernard Malamud

We didn't starve but nobody ate chicken unless we were sick or the chicken was.

— Bernard Malamud

The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course

— Bernard Malamud

“His worst fault is he thinks his brains entitle him to certain privileges.”

— Bernard Malamud

If your train's on the wrong track every station you come to is the wrong station.

— Bernard Malamud

“Of course I was embarrassed but I don't think you can do anything for anyone without giving up something of your own”

— Bernard Malamud

We have two lives... the life we learn with and the life we live after that. Suffering is what brings us towards…

— Bernard Malamud

(Clothes) cannot change a man's nature. He's either kind or he isn't, with or without clothes.

— Bernard Malamud

I write a book at least three times-once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to…

— Bernard Malamud

Some men are by nature explorers; my nature is to stay under the same moon and stars, and if the weather is…

— 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…

— Bernard Malamud

Children were strangers you loved because you could love. If they gave back love when they were grown you were ahead of…

— Bernard Malamud

The past exudes legend: one can't make pure clay of time's mud. There is no life that can be recaptured wholly; as…

— Bernard Malamud

Ithink Isaid'All menare Jews excepttheydon't know it.'I doubt I expected anyone to take the statement literally. But I think it's an understandable…

— 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…

— Bernard Malamud

“Keep in mind, Yakov Shepsovitch, that if your life is without value, so is mine. If the law does not protect you,…

— Bernard Malamud

“He remembered how satisfied he had been as a youngster, and that with the little he had had - a dog, a…

— Bernard Malamud

“Wonderboy flashed in the sun. It caught the sphere it was biggest. A noise like a twenty-one gun salute cracked the sky.…

— Bernard Malamud

“But she had recently come to think that in such unhappy times--when the odds were so high against personal happiness--to find love…

— Bernard Malamud

First drafts are for learning what your story is about.

— Bernard Malamud

The whole history of baseball has the quality of mythology.

— Bernard Malamud

We can't all be friends and relatives as the world is; most of us have to be strangers.

— Bernard Malamud

“Life, despite their frantic yoohooings, had passed them by.”

— Bernard Malamud

“I’m an American, I’m a Jew, and I write for all men.”

— Bernard Malamud

A writer is a spectator, looking at everything with a highly critical eye.

— Bernard Malamud

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

— Bernard Malamud

“In a sick country every step to health is an insult to those who live on its sickness.”

— Bernard Malamud

If you ever forget you're a Jew, a Gentile will remind you.

— Bernard Malamud

A writer has to surprise himself to be worth reading.

— Bernard Malamud