Bernard Malamud

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilisation from destroying it

Experience makes good people better." She was staring at the lake. "How does it do that?" "Through their suffering." "I had enough of that," he said in disgust. "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 All it taught me was to stay away from it. I am sick of all I have suffered." She shrank away a little.

It was a strange thing about people- they could look the same but be different.

They say God appeared in history and used it for his purposes, but if that was so he had no pity for men.

Where to look if you've lost your mind?

When I don't feel hurt, I hope they bury me.

If the stories come, you get them written, you're on the right track. Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilisation from destroying itself.", September 14, 1958)

The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly.

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

I fix what's broken - except in the heart.

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

Charity you can give even when you haven't got.

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.