Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

The apex of my civic pride and personal contentment was reached on the bright September morning when I entered the public school.

On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.

The first meal was an object lesson of much variety. My father produced several kinds of food, ready to eat, without any cooking, from little tin cans that had printing all over them.

It is not that I belong to the past, but the past that belongs to me.

You heard on all sides that the brightest Jewish children were turned down if the examining officers did not like the turn of their noses.

Such creatures of accident are we, liable to a thousand deaths before we are born. But once we are here, we may create our own world, if we choose.

I have so little mastered the art of tranquil living that wherever I go I trail storm clouds of drama around me.

What we get in steerage is not the refuse, but the sinew and bone of all the nations.

You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose.

The past was only my cradle, and now it cannot hold me, because I am grown too big.

He stopped complaining, but now I was annoyed. I went to the roof and drank alone.

Vadim was both my teacher and my husband. I placed myself entirely in his hands.

Don't judge a man by where he is, because you don't know how far he has come.

All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog.

We can become bitter or better as a result of our experiences.

We look on those approaching the banks of a river all must cross, with ten times the interest they excited when dancing in the meadow.

Wherefore the heart and the diaphragm are particularly sensitive, they have nothing to do, however, with the operations of the understanding, but of all these the brain is the cause.

Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.

When things go wrong, your best recovery effort is required. But don't just provide the missing piece (that's the recovery), also provide uniquely personal assistance (that's the memorable effort).

A lot of times [in the movie industry], women are relegated to playing the wife or girlfriend or daughter.