I listen to music when I write. I need the musical background. Classical music. I'm behind the times. I'm still with Baroque music, Gregorian chant, the requiems, and with the quartets of Beethoven and Brahms. That is what I need for the climate, for the surroundings, for the landscape: the music.

I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table.

The more we know, the more pain we have. But because we are human beings, this must be. Otherwise we become objects rather than subjects.

A Jew must be sensitive to the pain of all human beings. A Jew cannot remain indifferent to human suffering... The mission of the Jewish people has never been to make the world more Jewish, but to make it more human.

I am not so naïve as to believe that this slim volume will change the course of history or shake the conscience of the world. Books no longer have the power they once did. Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.

'Indifference to evil is equal to evil' because it strengthens people.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.