Bernard Malamud

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

“Life is a tragedy full of joy.”

“We have two lives... the life we learn with and the life we live with after that.”

“There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go—if there are no doors or windows—he walks through a wall.”

“The purpose of the writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”

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

“Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.”

“Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn.”

“Art celebrates life and gives it meaning.”

“All men are Jews, except they don't know it.”

“A man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime.”

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