Bernard Malamud
From Wikiquote
Bernard Malamud (1914-04-26 – 1986-03-18) 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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- Without heroes, we're all plain people, and don't know how far we can go.
- The Natural (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1952) p. 154.
- 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 (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1952) p. 158.
- Levin wanted friendship and got friendliness; he wanted steak and they offered spam.
- A New Life (1961; repr. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968) p. 111.
- If you ever forget you are a Jew a goy will remind you.
- "Black is My Favorite Color", in Idiots First (1963; repr. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1964) p. 29.
- "Mourning is a hard business," Cesare said. "If people knew there'd be less death."
- "Life is Better than Death", in Idiots First (1963; repr. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1964) p. 85.
- 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.
- "The Man in the Drawer", in Rembrandt's Hat (1973); cited from Selected Stories (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985) p. 225.
- 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.
- "An Interview with Bernard Malamud", in Leslie A. Field and Joyce W. Field (eds.) Bernard Malamud: A Collection of Critical Essays (London: Prentice-Hall, 1975) p. 11.
- 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.
- Dubin's Lives (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979) p. 27.
- 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.
- New York Times (January 29, 1979)
- It was all those biographies in me yelling, “We want out. We want to tell you what we’ve done to you.”
- On how Dubin’s Lives resulted from a lifetime of reading biographies, W (February 16, 1979)
