Writers write because they cannot allow the characters that inhabit them to suffocate them. These characters want to get out, to breathe fresh air and partake of the wine of friendship; were they to remain locked in, they would forcibly break down the walls. It is they who force the writer to tell their stories.

I believe a human being - if he or she wants to remain human, then he or she must do something with what we have seen, endured, witnessed.

I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.

The impact of the holocaust on believers as well as unbelievers, on Jews as well as Christians, has not yet been evaluated. Not deeply, not enough.

For the good of all, I say: Be careful, the brutality of the world must not be more powerful or attractive than love and friendship.

Even if people tell me they have historical proof [that it is not historical], that doesn't really bother me.

We've sort of agreed that the account of Adam and Eve is a story.