Theodore Bikel

“Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.”

“No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.”

“In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.”

“I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. To me it was meaningless. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sings about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.”

“I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sing about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.”

“But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.”

“I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.”

“Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission.”

“On the stage you're there, it's live. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.”

“As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.”

“I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.”

“Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?”

“In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace.”

“All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.”

“You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them.”