“I got in and started the engine, also turning on the radio. When the music began I wished that there might be more switches to turn on, for it was somehow not enough.”

“I am deeply moved when I write. I get turned on by it. I've never used any drugs for stimulation. I don't use words loosely. When I'm working and the right word comes, there is an answering resonance within me. There is also a hardness of intention that goes with it. There is no idleness in it.”

“Sometimes I wished I could become a shoemaker too.”

“It is wrong to turn a man (a subject) into a thing (an object). Bymeans of spiritual dialogue, the I-It relationship becomes an I-Thourelationship. God comes and goes in man's soul. And men come and goin each other's souls. Sometimes they come and go in each other'sbeds, too.”

“It never seems to occur to such "criminals" that to behave with decency to another human being might also be "gratuitous.”

“But privately when things got very bad I often looked into books to see whether I could find some helpful words, and one day I read, "The forgiveness of sins is perpetual and righteousness first is not required." This impressed me so deeply that I went around saying it to myself. But then I forgot which book it was.”

“I would never make a lion, I knew that; but I might pick up a small gain here and there in the attempt.”