“He was looking for the Knight of Faith, the real prodigy. That real prodigy, having set its relations with the infinite, was entirely at home in the finite. Able to carry the jewel of faith, making the motions of the infinite, and as a result needing nothing but the finite and the usual. Whereas others sought the extraordinary in the world. Or wished to be what was gaped at.”

Canadian and American writer

Saul Bellow was a Canadian and American writer whose work made him one of the central figures in 20th century fiction. He lived from 1915 to 2005 and was recognized with major literary honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only writer to have won the National Book Award for Fiction three times, and in 1990 he received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. His reputation rests on fiction that probes modern life, identity, and the pressures placed on individuals by society and thought.