“Haven't we all been hurt? Don't you think it takes courage to be happy, to feel, to love? Don't you think it costs us all?—Rivka”

“Deep inside me something says don't feel anything, go back to sleep, when you feel, it hurts. When you love, people die." —Ruth Mendenberg”

“We are alive. We are human, with good and bad in us. That's all we know for sure. We can't create a new species or a new world. That's been done. Now we have to live within those boundaries . What are our choices? We can despair and curse, and change nothing. We can choose evil like our enemies have done and create a world based on hate. Or we can try to make things better.”

“Will you be all right?" she askedHow could I be?Would you be all right, I felt like screaming, if you'd just watched your family taken away, watched your entire town taken away, to be murdered. I'll never be alright.”

“(S)omehow I've survived again. I don't know how to stop.—Ruth”

“I go in alone, for there is no one for me, but I don't care, I tell myself; I'd expected no one.—Ruth”

“I want someone to pinch me so I can feel something, anything. I'm sick of this numbness, of feeling so alone and outside of everything, but I know it's too dangerous to wake up." —Ruth Mendenberg”