I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?

I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.

No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.

After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.

England's traditional tolerance was outraged at last.

As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.

My heartfelt appreciation goes out to Jan Zwicky, Don McKay, John Barton, Barry Dempster, Carolyn Forché and Elizabeth Philips for their masterful eyes and minds.

The superior Christian lets God strip him of everything that might serve as a false refuge, a secondary trust.

All men are warriors. And life for everything in our universe is nothing but war.

There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.

I said to my husband, 'Why don't you call out my name when we're making love?' He said, 'I don't want to wake you up.'

Wherever you go, there are three icons that everyone knows: Jesus Christ, Pele and Coca-Cola.

Not the old, not the new, but the necessary.

Will is wish, and liberty is power.