Zitate von Isaac Bashevis Singer

„Wir Juden haben die Völker mit einem ewigen Gott belastet, und darum hassen sie uns.“

Shosha

„Wie ist es denn möglich, daß jemand einfach verschwinden kann? Wie kann jemand, der gelebt, geliebt, gehofft hat und mit Gott und sich selbst gehadert hat, einfach aufhören? Ich weiss nicht, wie und auf welche Weise, aber sie sind hier. Da Zeit eine Illusion ist, warum sollte nicht alles bestehen bleiben? Ich habe Sie einmal sagen oder jemanden zitieren hören, da die Zeit ein Buch ist, dessen Seiten man nur vorwärts, nicht rückwärts blättern kann. können es vielleicht nicht, aber möglicherweise können es irgendwelche Kräfte.“

Shosha

„Wir laufen davon, und der Berg Sinai läuft hinter uns her. Diese Jagd hat uns krank gemacht.“

„Irgendwo war mir ein Rest von Glauben an den freien Willen geblieben, aber an diesem Morgen war ich sicher, dem Menschen blieb so viel freie Wahl wie dem Uhrwerk in meiner Armbanduhr oder der Fliege, die auf dem Rand meiner Untertasse saß. Es waren die gleichen Kräfte, die Hitler, Stalin, den Papst, den Rabbi von Gur und ein Molekül in der Mitte der Erde antrieben, wie auch ein Sternbild, das Milliarden Lichtjahre entfernt von der Milchstraße war. Blinde Mächte? Sehende Mächte? Es war gleichgültig geworden. Es war uns bestimmt, unsere kleinen Spiele zu spielen und zermalmt zu werden.“

Shosha

„Wie ich höre, zeigt auch der Himmel eine Leidenschaft für das Neue. Ein Stern wird müde, ein Stern zu sein, und er explodiert und wird eine Nova.“

Shosha

„Was die Moralisten das Böse nannten, war in Wirklichkeit die Lebensregel.“

Shosha

„Wann immer ich vom Leben den Status quo erwarte, taucht etwas ganz unerwartetes auf. Die Weltgeschichte ist aus dem gleichen Teig gemacht wie Semmeln. Hauptsache, sie sind frisch.“

Shosha

„Als ich ein kleiner Junge war, betrachteten sie mich als Lügner, aber jetzt, wenn ich erwachsen bin, betrachten sie mich als Schriftsteller.“

Shosha

„To be a vegetarian is to disagree — to disagree with the course of things today. Starvation, world hunger, cruelty, waste, wars — we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it’s a strong one.“

„When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.“

Preface to Food for the Spirit: Vegetarianism and the World Religions by Steven Rosen (New York: Bala Books, 1987, )
Variante: To be a vegetarian is to disagree - to disagree with the course of things today... starvation, cruelty - we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one.
Kontext: Vegetarianism is my religion. I became a consistent vegetarian some twenty-three years ago. Before that, I would try over and over again. But it was sporadic. Finally, in the mid-1960s, I made up my mind. And I've been a vegetarian ever since. When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. … This is my protest against the conduct of the world. To be a vegetarian is to disagree — to disagree with the course of things today. Nuclear power, starvation, cruelty — we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one.

„In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they're the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought.“

TIME (18 July 1983)

„We all play chess with Fate as partner. He makes a move, we make a move. He tries to checkmate us in three moves, we try to prevent it. We know we can't win, but we're driven to give him a good fight.“

„Children don't read to find their identity, to free themselves from guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology… They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff… When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don't expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish illusions.“

Quelle: The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

„We must believe in free will — we have no choice.“

Nobel lecture as quoted in The Observer (17 December 1978) Variant: "They still believe in God, the family, angels, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other obsolete stuff."

„Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life.“

An ironic statement which Singer made in many interviews over many years; here quoted in "Isaac Singer’s Promised City" http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_3_urbanities-isaac.html City Journal (Summer 1997)
Variants or variant translations:
We must believe in free will — we have no other choice.
You must believe in free will; there is no choice.
We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.
This makes more sense if you consider the statement "we must believe in free will; we have no [other logical] choice"

„Night is a time of rigor, but also of mercy. There are truths which one can see only when it’s dark“

„What a strange power there is in clothing.“

Quelle: Teibele And Her Demon

„When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent. I can never accept inconsistency or injustice. Even if it comes from God. If there would come a voice from God saying, "I'm against vegetarianism!" I would say, "Well, I am for it!" This is how strongly I feel in this regard.“

„Not only has our generation lost faith in Providence but also in man himself, in his institutions and often in those who are nearest to him.“