Quotes from book

Everything Is Illuminated

“I saw Herschel and he saw me and we stood next to each other because that is what friends do in the presence of evil or love.”

“Words never mean what we want them to mean.”

“If we communicated with something like music, we would never be misunderstood, because there is nothing in music to understand.”

“he came to think, It surprised him that strangers didn't stop each other on the street to say”

“What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.”

“Memories are small prayers to God, if we believed in that sort of thing.”

“The images of his infinite pasts and infinite futures washed over him as he waited, paralyzed, in the present.”

“He knew that I love you also means I love you in a way that no one loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also, I love you in a way that I love no one else, and never have loved anyone else, and never will love anyone else.”

“I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.”

“This is love, she thought, isn't it? When you notice someone's absence and hate that absence more than anything? More, even, than you love his presence?”

“She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances.”

“… and when is enough proof enough?”

“She maintained a careful balance by her window, never allowing the men to come too close, never allowing them to stray too far.”

“We are being very nomadic with the truth, yes?”

“Everyone performs bad actions… A bad person is someone who does not lament his bad actions.”

“Well, let me leave it at this: if God does exist, He would have a great deal be sad about. And if He doesn’t exist, then that too would make Him quite sad, I imagine. So to answer your question, God must be sad.”

“It was not the feeling of completeness I so needed, but the feeling of not being empty.”

“I imagine a line, a white line, painted on the sand and on the ocean, from me to you.”

“The sky slowly pulled up its blue dress to reveal night.”