Quotes from Isaac Bashevis Singer

At moments when Herman fantasized about a new metaphysics, or even a new religion, he based everything on the attraction of the sexes. In the beginning was lust. The godly, as well as the human, principle is desire. Gravity, light, magnetism, thought may be aspects of the same universal longing. Suffering, emptiness, darkness are nothing more than interruptions of a cosmic orgasm that grows forever in intensity...

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

If one knew the truth how could there be freedom? If hell and paradise were in the middle of the marketplace, everyone would be a saint.

A soldier who serves an emperor has to have a uniform, and this also applies to a soldier who serves the Almighty.

That glimmer of light, surrounded by so many shadows, seemed to say without words: Evil has not yet taken complete dominion. A spark of hope is still left.

The Rabbi thought he saw an expression of perplexity in the golem's eyes. It seemed to the Rabbi that his eyes were asking, 'Who am I? Why am I here? What is the secret of my being? Rabbi Leib often saw the same bewilderment in the eyes of newborn children and even in the eyes of animals.

Es imposible escribir la verdadera historia de la vida de una persona. Supera el poder de la literatura. El relato completo de cualquier vida sería absolutamente aburrido además de absolutamente increíble.

Wie ich höre, zeigt auch der Himmel eine Leidenschaft für das Neue. Ein Stern wird müde, ein Stern zu sein, und er explodiert und wird eine Nova.

For those who are willing to make an effort, great miracles and wonderful treasures are in store.

In their behavior toward 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.

There is no such thing as love. Give me a cigarette. In the camp, people climbed on one another like worms.

Misfortune draws people to religion and mysticism

A freelance writer is paid per word, per piece, perhaps.

Atheism is a sort of crippled mysticism, [...] Blind nature has created all that we see, as well as all that we do not see - that's a mystical notion.

In their behaviour towards creatures, all men [are] Nazis

His eyes reflected a softness I had already forgotten in America.

What concrete steps can I take now? I asked the voice, and it replied: Go to a house of prayer and pray. Without faith? I countered, and the voice said: You have more faith than you know.

Wann immer ich vom Leben den Status quo erwarte, taucht etwas ganz unerwartetes auf. Die Weltgeschichte ist aus dem gleichen Teig gemacht wie Semmeln. Hauptsache, sie sind frisch.

Wir Juden haben die Völker mit einem ewigen Gott belastet, und darum hassen sie uns.

Where do the wheels of history lead? How can you be so sure that the wheels of history won't get bogged down in blood and marrow again?

Habría que sentir una total indiferencia hacia el hombre y el animal para conseguir ser feliz.

Darwin and Karl Marx didn't reveal the secret of the world. Of all the theories about creation, the one expounded in Genesis is the most intelligent. All this talk about primordial mists or the Big Bang is a wild absurdity. If someone found a watch on an island and said it had been made by itself or that it developed through evolution, he would be considered a lunatic. But according to modern science, the universe evolved all on its own. Is the universe less complicated than a watch?

It is a general rule that when the grain of truth cannot be found, men will swallow great helpings of falsehood.

In Russia, there was one cure for every illness—vodka.