Cynthia Ozick

In saying what is obvious, never choose cunning. Yelling works better. ”

In books, as in life, there are no second chances. On second thought: it's the next work, still to be written, that offers the second chance. ”

I am proudest of that first novel, 'Trust,' of anything I have written. I don't think I've had such intense energy since. ”

The Hebrew Bible has long been the world's possession, and those who come to it by any means, through whatever language, are equals in ownership, and may not be denied the intimacy of their spiritual claim. ”

The novelist's intuition for the sacred differs from the translator's interrogation of the sacred. ”

I never conceived of not writing a novel. I believed - oh, God, I believed, it was an article of faith! - I was born to write a novel. ”

No one can teach writing, but classes may stimulate the urge to write. If you are born a writer, you will inevitably and helplessly write. A born writer has self-knowledge. Read, read, read. And if you are a fiction writer, don't confine yourself to reading fiction. Every writer is first a wide reader. ”

All writing is presumption, of course, since no one knows what it is like to be another human being. ”

I think a fictional invention grows according to its own development, not the author's. Characters in fiction are not simply as alive as you and me, they are more alive. Becky Sharp, Elizabeth Bennett, and Don Quixote may not outlive the burning out of the sun, but they will certainly outlive the brief candle of our lives. ”

I think it is serious to have good sales. As I learned belatedly, the more you sell, the more publishers pay attention to you, and it took me a very long time to figure that out because I never thought that way. ”