People's talk and the stories they tell have been engraved on my heart, and some of them have flown into my pen.

I have also written a book about the Giving of the Torah, and a book on the Days of Awe, and a book on the books of Israel that have been written since the day the Torah was given to Israel.

Who were my mentors in poetry and literature? This is a matter of opinion. Some see in my books the influences of authors whose names, in my ignorance, I have not even heard, while others see the influences of poets whose names I have heard but whose writings I have not read. And what is my opinion? From whom did I receive nurture? Not every man remembers the name of the cow which supplied him with each drop of milk he has drunk.

People's talk and the stories they tell have been engraved on my heart, and some of them have flown into my pen.

I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote it.

Not every man remembers the name of the cow which supplied him with each drop of milk he has drunk.

The beginnings of my studies also came to me from my father, as well as from the Rabbinical Judge of our town. But they were preceded by three tutors under whom I studied, one after the other, from the time I was three and a half till I turned eight and a half.