It's Not A Pretty World, Papa.' 'i've

... An Artist Is A Person First. He Is An Individual. If There Is No Person, There Is No Artist.

I'm Not Altogether Certain That A Fundamentalism Of Necessity Has To Argue That It Is The Only Reading Of The Human Experience In Order To Stay Alive.

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.

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.