The novel at its nineteenth-century pinnacle was a Judaized novel: George Eliot and Dickens and Tolstoy were all touched by the Jewish covenant: they wrote of conduct and of the consequences of conduct: they were concerned with a society of will and commandment. Cynthia Ozick centurycommandmentconcern share on social
When I say that George Eliot has long been my hero, I mean to include those aspects of her thought and temperament that have been disparaged or dismissed or ignored. She was, after all, a novelist who did not eschew politics or polemics - sometimes silently though defiantly, as in her relationship with George Henry Lewes. Cynthia Ozick aspectdefiantlydismiss share on social
A novel can be set in motion by an incident, a character, a location, a mood - by anything at all. Sometimes the stimulus can be an idea, which will rapidly clothe itself in character and incident. 'Foreign Bodies' came about through the contemplation of the contrast between post-second world war America and Europe. Cynthia Ozick americabodycharacter share on social
I think most of my life I have not felt recognized. Cynthia Ozick feltliferecognize Change image and share on social
If I've ever regretted anything, it was putting all my eggs in one basket, holing up and kneeling at the altar of literature, instead of going out and at least reviewing, running around and trying to write for magazines. That would've been the intelligent thing to do, but I didn't, and that was because of fanaticism. Cynthia Ozick altarbasketegg share on social
The novelist's intuition for the sacred differs from the translator's interrogation of the sacred. Cynthia Ozick differinterrogationintuition Change image and share on social
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. Cynthia Ozick bookchancelife Change image and share on social
Whoever utters 'Kafkaesque' has neither fathomed nor intuited nor felt the impress of Kafka's devisings. If there is one imperative that ought to accompany any biographical or critical approach, it is that Kafka is not to be mistaken for the Kafkaesque. Cynthia Ozick accompanyapproachbiographical share on social
With certain rapturous exceptions, literature is the moral life. Cynthia Ozick exceptionlifeliterature Change image and share on social
In 1952, I had gone to England on a literary pilgrimage, but what I also saw, even at that distance from the blitz, were bombed-out ruins and an enervated society, while the continent was still, psychologically, in the grip of its recent atrocities. Cynthia Ozick atrocityblitzbomb share on social