Top Chaim Potok Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Chaim Potok Biography

Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 – July 23, 2002) was an American Jewish author and rabbi. Potok is most famous for his first book The Chosen (1967), which was listed on The New York Times’ best seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies.

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Chaim Potok Quotes

All beginnings are hard.

Beginnings, Hard

I think the hardest part of writing is revising. And by that I mean the following: A novelist has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it.

Away, Hardest, Mean, Revising, Thinking, Writing

Art begins. . . when someone interprets, when someone sees the world through his own eyes. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it.

Art, Eye, Interprets, World

I have faith in the Torah. I am not afraid of truth.

Afraid, Faith, Have Faith, Not Afraid, Torah, Truth

Two hundred or more years ago most people on the planet were never aware of any reality other than the one into which they were brought up.

Brought, Reality, Two, Years

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.

Blasphemous, Christian, Mocker, People, Self, Years

It is inconceivable to me that a million or three million or half a million human beings will think and feel precisely the same way on any single subject.

Half, Human, Million, Subject, Thinking, Three

Honest differences of opinion should never be permitted to destroy a friendship.

Destroy, Differences, Honest, Lost Friendship, Opinion

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.

Reading, Order, Alive, Necessity, Certain

I do not have many things that are meaningful to me. Except my doubts and my fears. And my art.

Art, Doubt, Except, Fears, Meaningful

I do not know what evil is when it comes to art. I only know what is good art and what is bad art.

Art, Bad, Evil, Good Art, Know

I looked at my right hand, the hand with which I painted. There was power in that hand. Power to create and destroy. Power to bring pleasure and pain. Power to amuse and horrify. There was in that hand the demonic and the divine at one and the same time. The demonic and the divine were two aspects of the same force. Creation was demonic and divine. Creativity was demonic and divine. I was demonic and divine.

Aspects, Creativity, Demonic, Hands, Pain

I will go wherever the truth leads me. It is secular scholarship, Rebbe; it is not the scholarship of tradition. In secular scholarship there are no boundaries and no permanently fixed views. ” Lurie, if the Torah cannot go out into your world of scholarship and return stronger, then we are all fools and charlatans. I have faith in the Torah. I am not afraid of truth.

Boundaries, Leads, Secular, Stronger, Views, World

Something that is yours forever is never precious

Forever, Precious

In Russia I went to a great yeshiva, and in America I work in a carnival.

America, Carnivals, Russia, Work, Yeshiva

Oh, it makes a difference, I thought. And if it doesn't make a difference you will make it make a difference.

Difference, Differences, Ifs, Make, Making A Difference, Thought

…everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.

Everything, Past, Persons, Plan, Plans, Word

A non-fiction writer pretty much has the shape of the figure in front of him or her and goes about refining it. A work of non-fiction is not as difficult to write as a work of fiction, but it's not as satisfying in the end.

Fiction, Figure, Pretty, Shapes, Writer, Writing

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.

Divine, Guarantees That, History, Relationship, Thinking

I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.

Eye, Insignificant, Long, Men, Quality, Reuven

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