People like Cynthia Ozick

Cynthia Ozick (born April 17, 1928) is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist.

Cynthia Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children. She moved to the Bronx with her Belarusian-Jewish parents from Hlusk, Belarus: Celia (née Regelson) and William Ozick, proprietors of the Park View Pharmacy in the Pelham Bay neighborhood.

She attended Hunter College High School in Manhattan. She earned her B.A. from New York University and went on to study at Ohio State University, where she completed an M.A. in English literature, focusing on the novels of Henry James.

She appears briefly in the film Town Bloody Hall, where she asks Norman Mailer with her signature wit and incisiveness, "in Advertisements for Myself you said, quote, 'A good novelist can do without everything but the remnant of his balls'. For years and years I’ve been wondering, Mr. Mailer, when you dip your balls in ink, what color ink is it?".