I'm Constantly Revising. Once The Book Is

Literature Presents You With Alternate Mappings Of The Human Experience. You See That The Experiences Of Other People And Other Cultures Are As Rich, Coherent, And Troubled As Your Own Experiences. They Are As Beset With Suffering As Yours. Literature Is A Kind Of Legitimate Voyeurism Through The Keyhole Of Language Where You Really Come To Know Other People's Lives--their Anguish, Their Loves, Their Passions. Often You Discover That Once You Dive Into Those Lives And Get Below The Surface, The Veneer, There Is A Real Closeness.

He Taught Them That The Purpose Of A Man Is To Make His Life Holy--every Aspect Of His Life: Eating, Drinking Praying, Sleeping. God Is Everywhere, He Told Them, And If It Seems At Times That He Is Hidden From Us, It Is Only Because We Have Not Yet Learned To Seek Him Correctly.

I Think Most Serious Writers, Certainly In The Modern Period, Use Their Own Lives Or The Lives Of People Close To Them Or Lives They Have Heard About As The Raw Material For Their Creativity.

My Name Is Asher Lev... I Am A Traitor, An Apostate, A Self-hater, An Inflicter Of Shame Upon My Family, My Friends, My People; Also, I Am A Mocker Of Ideas Sacred To Christians, A Blasphemous Manipulator Of Modes And Forms Revered By Gentiles For Two Thousand Years.

A Writer Is A Strange Instrument Of Our Species, A Harp Of Sorts, Fine-tuned To The Dark Contradictions Of Life.