We met each other when we were young, before we knew enough about disappointment, and once we did we found we reminded each other of it.

David Grossman may be the most gifted writer I've ever read. [To the End of the Land is] powerful, shattering, and unflinching. To read it is to have yourself taken apart, undone, touched at the place of your own essence.

And so he did the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life: he picked up his hat and walked away.

there are two types of people in the world: those who prefer to be sad among others, and those who prefer to be sad alone.

It's one of those unforgettable moments that happen as a child, when you discover that all along the world has been betraying you.

It is impossible to distrust one's writing without awakening a deeper distrust in oneself.

That he liked to think of himself as a philosopher. That he questioned all things, even the most simple, to the extent that when someone passing him on the street raised his hat and said, 'Good day,' Litvinoff often paused so long to weigh evidence that by the time he'd settled on an answer the person had gone on his way, leaving him standing alone.