It was the beginning of the war. I was twelve years old, my parents were alive, and God still dwelt in our town.

Oh, it is not death that frightens me, but the impossibility of imparting some meaning to my past.

Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies.

Some stories are true that never happened.

The darkness enveloped us. All I could hear was the violin and it was as if Juliek's soul had become the bow. He was playing his life...He played that which he would never play again.

What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.

The term is piqua nevish [?] it means to save a soul, to save a life. And that commandment supersedes all others. It means literally you may violate almost everything except, I think, three commandments of the heart, 613, - you may do anything, violate any commandment and the injunction simply to save a human life. And there are enough lives to be saved in - in Tibet.