‘I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times — once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say. Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.’

— Bernard Malamud

Bernard Malamud is a famous American Jewish author, born April 26, 1914, who passed away March 18, 1986. He is the author of eight novels and four short story collections, with six of his novels being made into films, and six awards for his work.