I may be a descendant of Seth. I say to myself, What does [the story of Cain and Abel] teach me? So I go back to all the interpretations in the Talmud, which to me are a source of pleasure and joy. Then I say, maybe this story is not for then; maybe it's for now! It's possible for brothers to kill one another in civil wars. But most important, whoever kills, kills his brother. That's a moral conclusion that may not be there; but that must be my conclusion. Otherwise, why read it? Whoever kills, kills his brother.

I'm not a political person, and their ambitions are not mine. They want power. I don't want power.

No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has escaped the kingdom of night.

If we want to know history, I would think there would be every reason to.

Refugee today means somebody who has no home. No homeland. No security. No government to protect him or her. And it is of course one feels not only uprooted, one feels useless. One feels always surrounded by hostile forces. Arousing suspicion.

I belong to a tradition that believes that the death of a single child is a blemish on creation.

No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions.