“The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course”

“She is not for you. She is a wild one--wild, without shame. This is not a bride for a rabbi".”

“Where to look if you've lost your mind?”

“Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder.”

“First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge & enhance an idea, to reform it . . . Revision is one of the true pleasures of writing.”

“A meshummed gives up one God for another. I don't want either. We live in a world where the clock ticks fast while he's on his timeless mountain staring in space. He doesn't see us and he doesn't care. Today I want my piece of bread, not in Paradise.”

“There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go--if there are no doors or windows--he walks through a wall.”