Frases de Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud
Fecha de nacimiento: 26. Abril 1914
Fecha de muerte: 18. Marzo 1986
Otros nombres: ბერნარდ მალამუდი, برنارد مالامود
Bernard Malamud fue un escritor estadounidense, considerado uno de los principales exponentes de la literatura judía de Norteamérica. Autor de siete novelas, entre las que destacan El mejor , El dependiente y El reparador . Sus cuentos fueron recopilados en El barril mágico , Idiotas primero , Imágenes de Fidelman y El sombrero de Rembrandt .
Frases Bernard Malamud
„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 have given my life to writing without regret, except when I consider what in my work I might have done better.“
Address at Bennington College (30 October 1984) as published in "Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life" in The New York Times (20 March 1988)
Contexto: I have written almost all my life. My writing has drawn, out of a reluctant soul, a measure of astonishment at the nature of life. And the more I wrote well, the better I felt I had to write.
In writing I had to say what had happened to me, yet present it as though it had been magically revealed. I began to write seriously when I had taught myself the discipline necessary to achieve what I wanted. When I touched that time, my words announced themselves to me. I have given my life to writing without regret, except when I consider what in my work I might have done better. I wanted my writing to be as good as it must be, and on the whole I think it is. I would write a book, or a short story, 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.
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 re-form it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing: The men and things of today are wont to lie fairer and truer in tomorrow's meadow, Henry Thoreau said.
I don't regret the years I put into my work. Perhaps I regret the fact that I was not two men, one who could live a full life apart from writing; and one who lived in art, exploring all he had to experience and know how to make his work right; yet not regretting that he had put his life into the art of perfecting the work.
„A good writer will be strengthened by his good writing at a time, let us say, of the resurgence of ignorance in our culture. I think I have been saying that the writer must never compromise with what is best in him in a world defined as free.“
Address at Bennington College (30 October 1984) http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/reviews/malamud-reflections.html as published in "Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life" in The New York Times (20 March 1988); also in Talking Horse : Bernard Malamud on Life and Work (1996) edited by Alan Cheuse and Nicholas Delbanco, p. 35
Contexto: If I may, I would at this point urge young writers not to be too much concerned with the vagaries of the marketplace. Not everyone can make a first-rate living as a writer, but a writer who is serious and responsible about his work, and life, will probably find a way to earn a decent living, if he or she writes well. A good writer will be strengthened by his good writing at a time, let us say, of the resurgence of ignorance in our culture. I think I have been saying that the writer must never compromise with what is best in him in a world defined as free.
„I would write a book, or a short story, 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.“
Address at Bennington College (30 October 1984) as published in "Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life" in The New York Times (20 March 1988)
Contexto: I have written almost all my life. My writing has drawn, out of a reluctant soul, a measure of astonishment at the nature of life. And the more I wrote well, the better I felt I had to write.
In writing I had to say what had happened to me, yet present it as though it had been magically revealed. I began to write seriously when I had taught myself the discipline necessary to achieve what I wanted. When I touched that time, my words announced themselves to me. I have given my life to writing without regret, except when I consider what in my work I might have done better. I wanted my writing to be as good as it must be, and on the whole I think it is. I would write a book, or a short story, 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.
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 re-form it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing: The men and things of today are wont to lie fairer and truer in tomorrow's meadow, Henry Thoreau said.
I don't regret the years I put into my work. Perhaps I regret the fact that I was not two men, one who could live a full life apart from writing; and one who lived in art, exploring all he had to experience and know how to make his work right; yet not regretting that he had put his life into the art of perfecting the work.
„If I may, I would at this point urge young writers not to be too much concerned with the vagaries of the marketplace.“
Address at Bennington College (30 October 1984) http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/reviews/malamud-reflections.html as published in "Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life" in The New York Times (20 March 1988); also in Talking Horse : Bernard Malamud on Life and Work (1996) edited by Alan Cheuse and Nicholas Delbanco, p. 35
Contexto: If I may, I would at this point urge young writers not to be too much concerned with the vagaries of the marketplace. Not everyone can make a first-rate living as a writer, but a writer who is serious and responsible about his work, and life, will probably find a way to earn a decent living, if he or she writes well. A good writer will be strengthened by his good writing at a time, let us say, of the resurgence of ignorance in our culture. I think I have been saying that the writer must never compromise with what is best in him in a world defined as free.
„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.“
— Bernard Malamud, The Natural
Fuente: The Natural (1952), p. 152
„Without heroes, we're all plain people, and don't know how far we can go.“
— Bernard Malamud, The Natural
The Natural (1952) p. 154 http://books.google.com/books?id=wCWhegoGUxwC&q=%22Without+heroes+we're+all+plain+people+and+don't+know+how+far+we+can+go%22&pg=PA148#v=onepage
„I don't think you can do anything for anyone without giving up something of your own.“
— Bernard Malamud, The Natural
The Natural (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003) p. 149 http://books.google.com/books?id=wCWhegoGUxwC&q=%22I+don't+think+you+can+do+anything+for+anyone+without+giving+up+something+of+your+own%22&pg=PA149#v=onepage. (originally published 1952)
„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.“
— Bernard Malamud, libro Dubin's Lives
Dubin's Lives (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979) p. 27
„Those who write about life, reflect about life…. you see in others who you are.“
— Bernard Malamud, libro Dubin's Lives
Dubin's Lives (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 (16 February 1979)
„Mourning is a hard business," Cesare said. "If people knew there'd be less death.“
"Life is Better than Death", in Idiots First (1963), p. 85
„Life is a tragedy full of joy.“
New York Times (29 January 1979)
„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
„Levin wanted friendship and got friendliness; he wanted steak and they offered spam.“
— Bernard Malamud, libro A New Life
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), p. 29