I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?

I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.

No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.

After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.

Most of the people want to be a leader of winners, but I want to be a leader of losers because losers are the people who truly know the value of winning and they also know how to use and respect it.

Can't you see that it's just raining?There ain't no need to go outside.

That's the thing about distance: It either gives you time to move on form someone, or it makes you realize just how much you need them.

I waste every breathe of my life trying to be the best nobody has ever been.

In this life all that I have is my word and my balls and I do not break them for nobody.

People who deliberate fully before they take a step will spend their lives on one leg

But I did not find any positive inspiration in my studies until I approached my nineteenth year.

I never go to funerals. To me a person is dead when he breathes for the last time. After that, your memories should be personal.

I didn't write the book to sell the book, but to tell my experiences.

Ours is a people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance.