The Fixer Quotes

“Where to look if you've lost your mind?”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“There are no wrong books. What's wrong is the fear of them.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“I fix what's broken - except in the heart.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Would you say you have a "philosophy" Of your own? If so what is it?'
'If I have it's all skin and bones...If I have any philosophy...it's that life could be better than it is.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“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

“We're persecuted in the most civilized languages.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Charity you can give even when you haven't got.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“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.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Who invented my life?”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“In a sick country every step to health is an insult to those who live on its sickness.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“A meshummed gives up one God for another. I don't want either. We live in a world where the clock ticks fast while he's on his timeless mountain staring in space. He doesn't see us and he doesn't care. Today I want my piece of bread, not in Paradise.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“So sleep now, without fear for your life, and if you should ever manage to get out of prison, keep in mind that the purpose of freedom is to create it for others.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“will you please explain how you can cry for a dead dog yet belong to a society of fanatics that urges death on human beings who happen to be Jews? Explain to me the logic of it.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Kiev, you understand, is a medieval city full of wild superstition and mysticism. It has always been the heart of Russian reaction. The Black Hundreds, may they sink into their graves, have aroused against you the most ignorant and brutal of the masses. They are deathly afraid of Jews and at the same time frighten them to death. This reveals to you something about the human condition. Rich or poor, those of our brethren who can run out of here are running. Some who can’t are already mourning.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Keep in mind, Yakov Shepsovitch, that if your life is without value, so is mine. If the law does not protect you, it will not, in the end, protect me. Therefore I dare not fail you, and that is what causes me anxiety—that I must not fail you.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“There’s something cursed, it seems to me, about a country where men have owned men as property. The stink of that corruption never escapes the soul, and it is the stink of future evil.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Being born a Jew meant being vulnerable to history, including its worst errors. Accident and history had involved Yakov Bok as he had never dreamed he could be involved. The involvement was, in a way of speaking, impersonal, but the effect, his misery and suffering, were not. The suffering was personal, painful, and possibly endless.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Since I can’t be a professional on account of lack of education I wouldn’t mind being wealthy.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“There are no wrong books. What’s wrong is the fear of them.” Shmuel”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“They say God appeared in history and used it for his purposes, but if that was so he had no pity for men.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“noodles.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Yakov,” said Shmuel, “He invented light. He created the world. He made us both. The true miracle is belief. I believe in Him. Job said, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.’ He said more but that’s enough.” “To win a lousy bet with the devil he killed off all the servants and innocent children of Job. For that alone I hate him, not to mention ten thousand pogroms. Ach, why do you make me talk fairy tales? Job is an invention and so is God.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Who are you, Yakov, Moses himself? If you don’t hear His voice so let Him hear yours. ‘When prayers go up blessings descend.’” “Scorpions descend, hail, fire, sharp rocks, excrement. For that I don’t need God’s help, the Russians are enough.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“I do not have to tell you there has been a disappointing retreat of progress in recent times, whatever it is we call progress, especially disappointing because of the little we have had since the Emancipation. There’s something cursed, it seems to me, about a country where men have owned men as property. The stink of that corruption never escapes the soul, and it is the stink of future evil. Still, the original decrees have not been withdrawn and are therefore the law.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Non esisteva niente che assomigliasse a una settimana, se non esisteva un termine alla sua permanenza in prigione. Se fosse stato in Siberia a scontare vent'anni di lavori forzati, una settimana avrebbe significato qualcosa. Sarebbero stati vent'anni meno una settimana. Me per un uomo che forse rimarrà in prigione per un numero incalcolabile di giorni esistono solo tanti primi giorni che si susseguono, uno dopo l'altro. Il terzo giorno è il primo, il quarto è il primo, il settantunesimo è il primo. Il primo giorno è il tremillesimo.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“Nel nome di Sua Maestà Nicola II", annunciò il colonnello dai capelli rossi, "la arresto. Se resiste è morto".
Yakov confessò subito di essere ebreo. Quanto al resto, era innocente.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

“It tasted bitter and he blamed existence.”
― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer