If you ever forget you are a Jew a goy will remind you.
The short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime
You see in others who you are.
Prufrock had measured out his life with measuring spoons; Dubin, in books resurrecting the lives of others.
The past exudes legend: one can't make pure clay of time's mud. There is no life that can be recaptured wholly; as it was.Which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction.
Writers who can't invent stories often substitute style for narrative. They remind me of the painter who couldn't paint people, so he painted chairs.