American - Writer | 1980 -
In mid-20th-century America, it could be argued that the novelist still had the most claim of anyone to omniscience. Whatever he/she couldn't prove, he/she could gesture at.
Joshua Cohen
AmericaProveWhateverGestureClaim
What do I want from a book? Something protean, something always on-the-move-or-make - shape-shifting, semantically-and-syntactically-shifting.
BookWantAlwaysSomething
Books were in my family - books were my family.
FamilyBooksWere
What qualified me to write about Israel was that I wanted to; it took no time to convince myself. The only reservation I had was about eaven: I wanted to write about the Jewish heaven but did not feel qualified because I did not and do not believe in 'it,' though I should.
TimeMyselfMeBelieveFeelHeaven
Most literature everywhere and of every time is bad.
TimeLiteratureBadMostEvery
You write a novel by inventing a world and inventing the rules that govern that world. Then you break the rules when you want to.
WorldYouRulesWantWriteBreak
All of business and all of politics is essentially fiction to those who live them. I have more experience with fiction than most senators because I do it all day, so their world didn't seem that foreign to me.
LiveBusinessDayPoliticsMeWorld
Most novelists are narcissistic egomaniacs who would probably fit somewhere on the CEO spectrum.
SomewhereCEOWouldSpectrumMost
The problem is Jewish-American fiction that always ends with assimilation back into the community.
CommunityProblemBackAlwaysEnds
The M.F.A. is a degree in servitude. It is a way to keep writing safe - to keep reading safe from writing.
WritingReadingWaySafeDegree
The big publishers want someone they can send on the Jewish book circuit, somebody the old ladies can see marrying their granddaughters.
BookSomeoneWantOldJewishSee
I first read Dostoyevsky when I was 14 years old and was entranced. Dostoyevsky truly is a writer for 14-year-olds, and I mean that in the most approving way - approving of his energy, and rage, his endless pessimism, and endless innocence.
EnergyInnocenceWayMeanOldFirst
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