Quotes from The Assistant

“When I don't feel hurt, I hope they bury me.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“His worst fault is he thinks his brains entitle him to certain privileges.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“But she had recently come to think that in such unhappy times--when the odds were so high against personal happiness--to find love was miraculous, and to fulfill it as best two people could was what really mattered.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“She had recently come to think that in such unhappy times-when the odds were so high against personal happiness-to find love was miraculous, and to fulfill it as best as two people could was what really mattered. Was it more important to insist a man's religious beliefs be exactly hers, or that the two of them have in common ideals, a desire to keep love in their lives, and to preserve in every possible way what was best in themselves? The less difference among people, the better; thus she settled it for herself yet was dissatisfied for those for whom she hadn't settled it,”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Overnight business could go down enough to hurt; yet as a rule it slowly recovered--sometimes it seemed to take forever--went up, not high enough to be really up, only not down.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Where a boy runs he never forgets.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Lei si recava in biblioteca in media due volte a settimana, prendendo solo un libro o due per volta, perché ritornare a chiederne un altro era una delle sue poche gioie. Anche nei momenti in cui si sentiva più sola le piaceva trovarsi in mezzo ai libri, sebbene qualche volta fosse deprimente vedere il numero dei volumi che non aveva ancora letto.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Le storie ci accompagneranno finchè esisterà l'uomo. Lo si capisce, in parte, dall'effetto che hanno sui bambini. Grazie alle storie i bambini capiscono che il mistero non li ucciderà. Grazie alle storie scoprono di avere un futuro.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“It was a strange thing about people- they could look the same but be different.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Erano i primi di novembre e all'alba l'oscurità della notte durava ancora nella via, ma il vento, con meraviglia del negoziante, imperversava già. Gli sbatté con violenza il grembiule in faccia mentre si chinava a raccogliere le due cassette di latte dal bordo del marciapiede. Ansimando, Morris Bober trascinò fino alla porta i pesanti recipienti.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Più sgobbava - la sua fatica era un'immagine del tempo che divora se stesso - meno sembrava possedere.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Certe persone desidererebbero che i loro figli leggessero di più. Io vorrei che tu leggessi di meno.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Era in balia di ogni soffio di vento, non possedeva nulla.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Era nato buono, il che se ti capita è una virtù.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“L'America era diventata troppo complicata e un uomo non contava più nulla. Troppi negozi, troppe depressioni, troppe ansie. Cosa aveva voluto fuggire, venendo qui?”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Quando un uomo è onesto dorme tranquillo. E questo vale più di cinque centesimi rubati.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“L'uomo non dimentica mai i luoghi in cui ha corso da bambino.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Sam Pearl, curvo su un foglio verde delle corse, gli fece un cenno di saluto con la mano grassoccia. A nessuno dei due veniva mai in mente di mettersi a chiacchierare. Che ne capiva lui delle corse di cavalli? Che ne sapeva l'altro della tragicità della vita?”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Tirò su una palata di neve e la buttò in strada. Si polverizzò a mezz'aria e turbinò via.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Quando si ha qualcosa da fare che valga la pena, dormire è una perdita.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“L'idea che qualunque cosa facesse si dovesse trasformare in un evento irrimediabile, gli dava un senso disperato di frustrazione.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

“Ogni occhiata perduta, per uno che viveva di sguardi, era una perdita irrimediabile.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Assistant

About the author

Popular quotes

“It is astonishing to think that millions of people in my time—now, too, I suppose—actually thought that at a given moment in history two human beings had evolved to a higher state than that of all the gods that ever were or ever will be. This is titanism, as the Greeks would say. This is madness.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation

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“Father Travis leaned back. I glanced up at him. He was watching us from under his brow, his hands folded in his lap. His eyes had taken on that cyborg gleam. His cheekbones looked like they were going to break right through his skin. Not only did he own a copy of Alien, not only did he have an amazing and terrible wound, but he had called us humiliating names without actually resorting to the usual swear words. Besides that there was the deft speed with which he’d caught Angus, the free weights beside the television, the fancy Michelob. It was almost enough to make a boy want to be a Catholic.”
― Louise Erdrich, quote from The Round House

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“What use, after all, is man, if not to teach God His lessons?”
― Peter Shaffer, quote from Amadeus

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.