Quotes from Theodore Bikel

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

In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.

Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.

As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.

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

You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them.

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.

Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission.

On the stage you're there, it's live. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.

We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.

In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace.

I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.

I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. To me it was meaningless. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sings about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.

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.

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.

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

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

When something is moving you get that intake of breath and that stillness from the audience.

We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.

Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.

You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.

Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.

I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. To me it was meaningless. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sings about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.

I am not a specialist but a general practitioner in the world of the arts.