"We have two lives... the life we learn with and the life we live after that. Suffering is what brings us towards happiness."
— Bernard Malamud (The Natural)

"What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering."
— Bernard Malamud

"You could not pity anything if you weren't a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention."
— Bernard Malamud (The Fixer: A Novel)

"Nobody lived in Eden anymore."
— Bernard Malamud

"Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing."
— Bernard Malamud

"Without heroes we're all plain people and don't know how far we can go."
— Bernard Malamud

"Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder."
— Bernard Malamud (The Magic Barrel: Stories)

"A man is an island in the only sense that matters, not an easy way to be. We live in mystery, a cosmos of separate lonely bodies, men, insects, stars. It is all loneliness and men know it best."
— Bernard Malamud (Dubin's Lives)