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Bernard Malamud Quotes
1914–1986 United States
Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short-story writer. His stories often take the form of moral fables dealing with the struggles of Jewish-American characters.
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17 quotes
If I may, I would at this point urge young writers not to be too much concerned with the vagaries of the marketplace.
I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times — once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say.
If your train's on the wrong track every station you come to is the wrong station.
I have given my life to writing without regret, except when I consider what in my work I might have done better.
I don't think you can do anything for anyone without giving up something of your own.
Levin wanted friendship and got friendliness; he wanted steak and they offered spam.
If you ever forget you are a Jew a goy will remind you.
"Without heroes, we're all plain people, and don't know how far we can go."
The Natural (1952)
"… keep in mind that the purpose of freedom is to create it for others."
The Fixer (1966)
There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to – if there are no doors or windows – he walks through a wall.
We have two lives, Roy, the life we learn with and the life we live with after that. Suffering is what brings us toward happiness.
The Natural (1952)
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.
Those who write about life, reflect about life…. you see in others who you are.
Dubin's Lives (1979)
Life is a tragedy full of joy.
It was all those biographies in me yelling, “We want out. We want to tell you what we’ve done to you.”
A good writer will be strengthened by his good writing at a time, let us say, of the resurgence of ignorance in our culture. I think I have been saying that the writer must never compromise with what is best in him in a world defined as free.
I think I said "All men are Jews except they don't know it." I doubt I expected anyone to take the statement literally. But I think it's an understandable statement and a metaphoric way of indicating how history, sooner or later, treats all men.
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