Saul Bellow Character Quotations

I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that somber city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. But a man's character is his fate, says Heraclitus, and in the end there isn't any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.

To tell the truth I never had it so good. But I lacked the strength of character to bear such joy.

Human character is smaller now, people don't have durable passions; they've replaced passions with excitement.

But a man's character is his fate... and in the end there isn't any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.

The main reason for rewriting is not to achieve a smooth surface, but to discover the inner truth of your characters.