You can't eat language but it eases thirst. Bernard Malamud More Quotes by Bernard Malamud More Quotes From Bernard Malamud First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to re-form it.... The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better. Bernard Malamud bookideasfirsts All my life I wanted to accomplish something worthwhile-a thing people will say took a little something. Bernard Malamud accomplishmentlittlespeople You write by sitting down and writing. There's no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he's disciplined, doesn't matter. Bernard Malamud sitting-downdown-andwriting It was all those biographies in me yelling, 'We want out. We want to tell you what we've done to you.' Bernard Malamud yellingdonewant In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams. Bernard Malamud dream Overnight business could go down enough to hurt; yet as a rule it slowly recovered-sometimes it seemed to take forever-went up, not high enough to be really up, only not down. Bernard Malamud obstacleshurtforever Where to look if you've lost your mind? Bernard Malamud mindlostlooks Comedy, I imagine, is harder to do consistently than tragedy, but I like it spiced in the wine of sadness. Bernard Malamud sadnesswinetragedy I work with language. I love the flowers of afterthought. Bernard Malamud afterthoughtlanguageflower Writing is a mode of being. If I write I live. Bernard Malamud ifswriting One's fantasy goes for a walk and returns with a bride. Bernard Malamud funny-marriagefantasyreturn I love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes it throws in a load of fish. Bernard Malamud metaphorsometimestwo We didn't starve but nobody ate chicken unless we were sick or the chicken was. Bernard Malamud povertypoorsick It's one thing for a man not to know, not to have learned; it's another not to be able to live by what one does know. Bernard Malamud diversityjusticemen Space plus whatever you feel equals more whatever you feel, marvelous for happiness, God save you otherwise. Bernard Malamud plusspacehappiness You could not pity anything if you weren't a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention. Bernard Malamud pitysurprisemen 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. 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, 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 confusiongivingorder What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering. Bernard Malamud uselessnesstaughtsuffering The short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime Bernard Malamud pagesselfstories I fix what's broken - except in the heart. Bernard Malamud brokenheart
