“The most important question a human being has to face. What is it? The question, Why are we here?”

Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate – healthy virile hate – for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.

Bite your lips, little brother…Don’t cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. The day will come but not now…Wait. Clench your teeth and wait.

Only the guilty are guilty: the children of killers are not killers, but children.

Every moment contains a spark of eternity.

For us it’s not easy to be conformist, I cannot stand to be conformist, I don’t accept what it is, I like to say no. If I see an injustice I scream.

For nearly 3,500 years Exodus has left such an imprint on people’s memories that I cannot imagine it had been invented just as a legend or a tale.

you can do something. You can, even for one person Don’t turn away; help. Because those who suffer, often suffer not because of the person or the group that inflicts the suffering; they seem to suffer because nobody cares.

This is the role of writers: to turn their tears into a story – and perhaps into a prayer.

Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

A religious person answers to God, not to the elected or non-elected official.

In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see.

To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.

Better that one heart be broken a thousand times in the retelling, he has decided, if it means that a thousand other hearts need not be broken at all.

Eternity is the place where questions and answers become one.

Life is not a fist. Life is an open hand waiting for some other hand to enter it.

Think higher, feel deeper.

Let a series of happy thoughts run through your mind. They will show on your face.

From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.

There’s more to life than cheek bones.

What is it you want to change? Your hair, your face, your body? Why? For God is in love with all those things and he might weep when they are gone.

Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it’s a challenge to the moral imagination.

The fears we don’t face become our limits.

The secret is to moisturize the face. I’ve been doing that since I was 17 years old. (on looking young)

There was a time in my career when I felt like I wasn’t being true to myself. I was being moulded into an artist I wasn’t, and I knew I had to do everything I wanted to do. I think that’s an issue a lot of women face, and men do have it easier in a lot of ways.