I wrote my first book, I published it in 1955, it was in Yiddish and it was called And The World Was Silent.

Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

I don't think [governments] use [religious repression ] as a weapon, they use it as a as a means of - of oppression. To stifle opposition. To mute resistance.

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 am much more afraid of my good deeds that please me than of my bad deeds that repel me.

That [Exodus] occurred, I have no doubt.

My anger rises up within faith and not outside it.