Reality Hunger is more than thought-provoking; it's one of the most beautiful books I've read in a long time.

Not responding is a response - we are equally responsible for what we don't do.

I have no need for the past, I thought, like a child. I did not consider that the past might have a need for me.

The disgraced Usurer Yankel D took the baby girl home that evening... He made a bed of crumpled newspaper in a deep baking pan and gently tucked it in the oven, so that she wouldn't be disturbed by the noise of the small falls outside... When he pulled her out to feed her or just hold her, her body was tattooed with the newsprint... Sometimes he would rock her to sleep in his arms, and read her left to right, and know everything he needed to know about the world. If it wasn't written on her, it wasn't important to him.

Since the world has changed so much, the same values don't lead to the same choices anymore.

What? she said once to herself, and then once aloud, What? She felt a total displacement, like a spinning globe brought to a sudden halt by the light touch of a finger. How did she end up here, like this? How could there have been so much - so many moments, so many people and things, so many razors and pillows, timepieces and subtle coffins - without her being aware? How did her life live itself without her?

Sometimes you have to put your fears in order.