Quotes from Isaac Bashevis Singer

Night is a time of rigor, but also of mercy. There are truths which one can see only when it's dark

In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they're the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought.

As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behaviour towards creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. The chasm is never completely bridged. We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper.

When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.

What do they know-all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world - about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.

We have to believe in free-will. We've got no choice.

As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.

What a strange power there is in clothing.

A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

Life is God's novel. Let him write it.

We all play chess with Fate as partner. He makes a move, we make a move. He tries to checkmate us in three moves, we try to prevent it. We know we can't win, but we're driven to give him a good fight.

The wastepaper basket is the writer's best friend.

When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself

When a writer tries to explain too much, he's out of time before he begins.

Sometimes love is stronger than a man's convictions.

If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.

What do these children do without storybooks?" Naftali asked. And Reb Zebulun replied: "They have to make do. Storybooks aren't bread. You can live without them." I couldn't live without them." Naftali said.

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.

Every human character appears only once in the history of human beings. And so does every event of love.

I don't study literature, I read it for enjoyment

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.

There is a permanent amnesia planted in us, which just as we keep forgetting our dreams, we sometimes keep on forgetting our reality.

I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.