Bernard Malamud Quotes about Writing

Teach yourself to work in uncertainty.

Writing, Teach, Uncertainty

I write a book 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.

Bernard Malamud

Book, Writing, Three

Bernard Malamud (1989). “The People: And Other Uncollected Fiction”, p.10, Macmillan

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

Bernard Malamud

Writing, Revision, Pleasure

"Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life". The New York Times, March 20, 1988.

The great thing about writing: Stay with it ... ultimately you teach yourself something very important about yourself.

Bernard Malamud

Writing, Important, About Yourself

Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

Bernard Malamud

Writing, Ideas, Reform

"Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life". The New York Times, March 20, 1988.

Those who write about life, reflect about life. you see in others who you are.

Bernard Malamud

Writing, Who You Are

BERNARD MALAMUD (1979). “DUBLIN'S LIVES”

To any writer: Teach yourself to work in uncertainty. Many writers are anxious when they begin, or try something new. Even Matisse painted some of his Fauvist pictures in anxiety. Maybe that helped him to simplify. Character, discipline, negative capability count. Write, complete, revise. If it doesn't work, begin something else.

Bernard Malamud

Writing, Character, Discipline

Bernard Malamud, Lawrence M. Lasher (1991). “Conversations with Bernard Malamud”, p.59, Univ. Press of Mississippi

The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly.

Bernard Malamud

Moving, Writing, Ideas

Bernard Malamud, Lawrence M. Lasher (1991). “Conversations with Bernard Malamud”, p.32, Univ. Press of Mississippi

Writing is a mode of being. If I write I live.

Bernard Malamud

Writing, Ifs

Bernard Malamud, Thomas Mallon (2003). “Dubin's Lives: A Novel”, p.105, Macmillan

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

Writing, Sitting Down, Down And

Bernard Malamud, Lawrence M. Lasher (1991). “Conversations with Bernard Malamud”, p.58, Univ. Press of Mississippi