Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.

In my town we studied the five Books of Moses, but rarely the prophets. We studied the Talmud so much that I sometimes knew the prophets because of the prophetic quotations in the Talmud. We almost never studied the prophets themselves.

Certain things, certain events, seem inexplicable only for a time: up to the moment when the veil is torn aside.

Pain is essential. Often I cannot avoid it.Therefore all one can do is redeem it; and the only way to redeem it is through literature, art, poetry, music.

They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another: telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions. (v)

Politicians, they give the visible aspect of the change, but the change, the root, the anchor are in young people.

I developed an anger at [Moses] Mendelssohn. Later, I read the book. I realized there was nothing subversive in it.