Isaac Bashevis Singer

If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.

We have to believe in free-will. We've got no choice.

There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.

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

A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is - full of surprises.

If Moses had been paid newspaper rates for the Ten Commandments, he might have written the Two Thousand Commandments.

The analysis of character is the highest human entertainment.

Sometimes love is stronger than a man's convictions.

If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.

We write not only for children but also for their parents. They, too, are serious children.

A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.

Originality is not seen in single words or even in sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.

We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.

The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual - when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions - it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.

The New England conscience doesn't keep you from doing what you shouldn't - it just keeps you from enjoying it.

The second half of the twentieth century is a complete flop.

There is great treasure there behind our skull and this is true about all of us. This little treasure has great, great powers, and I would say we only have learnt a very, very small part of what it can do.

We must believe in free will, we have no choice.

For those who are willing to make an effort, great miracles and wonderful treasures are in store.