Quotes By Theodore Bikel

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.

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

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.

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 am filled with awe that filmmakers have the capacity to stir us and give us back a sense of wonder.

For I firmly believe that Jewish life, indeed any communal life, can only be organized according to democratic principles.

If I have one vanity wish, it would be to direct. It's the only thing I haven't done yet that I would like to.

Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.

But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.

I am not a specialist but a general practitioner in the world of the arts.

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

I am not, and have never been, in favor of boycotting Israel.

We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.

No movement can afford to be caught in a time warp and exist in a state of suspended animation.

I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.

You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.

We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

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

I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.

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 Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.

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

You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.

I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures or that the Jewish song is better than the song of my neighbor.

I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.

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.

You learn more from the flops than from the hits.

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

No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.