And to write is to sow and to reap at the same time.

The whole community must be saved [in Tibet].

Except that a human being is both the public and the private. We are both, private and public in the same person.

..you do not leave a library; if you do what it wants you to do, you are taking it with you.

I come from a very religious background.And actually I remained in it. All my anger I describe in my quarrels with God in Auschwitz, but you know I used to pray every day.

For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.

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.