Quotes By Theodore Bikel

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

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

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

After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.

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.

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

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

While we all could agree that the Zionist ideal is alive and well, there is serious doubt whether the Zionist movement can be said to be an ongoing proposition, fragmented as its components are in ideology and in practice.

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

The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.

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.

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.

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 doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.

You learn more from the flops than from the hits.

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.

I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.

One might have thought the world would stop ascribing moral equivalence between acts of terrorism and acts of punishing terrorism. It has not happened that way.