# Quote — Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

> He had learned, it wasn’t easy; the experience was his; it was worse than that, it was he. He was the experience. It also meant that now he was somebody else than he had been, who would have thought it? So I learned a little, he thought, I learned this but what good will it do me? Will it open the prison doors? Will it allow me to go out and take up my poor life again? Will it free me a little once I am free? Or have I only learned to know what my condition is – that the ocean is salty as you are drowning, and though you knew it you are drowned? Still, it was better than not knowing. A man had to learn, it was his nature.

- Author: [Bernard Malamud](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud.md)
- Book: [The Fixer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fixer#Part_Nine) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer/he-had-learned

## More from this book

> But after the visit to the cave he had stopped thinking of relevancy, truth, or even proof. There was no ‘reason,’ there was only their plot against a Jew, any Jew; he was the accidental choice for the sacrifice. He would be tried because the accusation had been made, there didn’t have to be another reason. Being born a Jew meant being vulnerable to history, including its worst errors.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer/but-after-the.md)

> If only his innocence were written on a sheet of paper, he could pull it out and say, ‘Read, it’s all here,’ but since it was hidden in himself they would know it only if they sought it, and they were not seeking.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer/if-only-his.md)

> Yakov wrung his hands. ‘If so what am I to do, your honour? Will I be abandoned to die in this prison?’
>
> ‘Who has abandoned you?’ the Investigating Magistrate asked, looking at him gently.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer/yakov-wrung-his.md)