“Joy was not the raw material of humor . . . The dark source was sorrow.”

“I remember as a child of eight being told by a young friend that I had killed Christ. That was news to me. It's a common experience for the Jewish young. Should later generations of Germans be burdened with the guilt arising from the profound inhumanity of their ancestors? Revenge may be sweet, but guilt is non-transferable. Still, hatreds survive with the persistence of cockroaches.”

“The books we enjoy as children stay with us forever -- they have a special impact. Paragraph after paragraph and page after page, the author must deliver his or her best work.”

“Words were a conjuration, and their charms had begun to bewitch him.”

“The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in heaven.”

“Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humor in Heaven.”

“The word "paradise" came out of my mouth, without thinking.”