A book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare – let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel. – Chaim Potok
Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a universal without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere. – Chaim Potok
I think that to a very great extent we are partners with the divine in this enterprise called history. That is an ongoing relationship, and there is absolutely no guarantee that things will automatically work out to our best advantage. – Chaim Potok
And these two elements are at odds with one another because Freud is utterly adversary to almost all the ways of structuring the human experience found in Western religions. No Western religion can countenance Freuds view of man. – Chaim Potok
I love my friends and family, but I also love it when they cant find me and I can spend all day reading or walking all alone, in silence, eight thousand miles away from everyone. All alone and unreachable in a foreign country is one my most favorite possible things to be. – Elizabeth Gilbert