Asher Lev Quotes

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. ~ Chaim Potok

... the world will indulge you just so long Asher Lev. Then it will stop. You will simply have to grow accustomed to that truth. ~ Chaim Potok

Something that is yours forever is never precious ~ Chaim Potok

Chaim Potok wrote two novels that I think are indispensable to understanding the Hasidic and Orthodox American Jewish communities following the Holocaust: The Chosen and My Name Is Asher Lev. ~ Nancy Pearl

Little Asher Lev was the juncture point of two significant family lines, the apex, as it were, of a triangle seminal with Jewish potentiality and freighted with Jewish responsibility. But he was also born with a gift. ~ Chaim Potok

For all the pain you suffered, my mama. For all the torment of your past and future years, my mama. For all the anguish this picture of pain will cause you. For the unspeakable mystery that brings good fathers and sons into the world and lets a mother watch them tear at each other's throats. For the Master of the Universe, whose suffering world I do not comprehend. For dreams of horror, for nights of waiting, for memories of death, for the love I have for you, for all the things I remember, and for all the things I should remember but have forgotten, for all these I created this painting - an observant Jew working on a crucifixion because there was no aesthetic mold in his own religious tradition into which he could pour a painting of ultimate anguish and torment. ~ Chaim Potok

It's not a pretty world, Papa.'
'I've noticed,' my father said softly. ~ Chaim Potok

Yes, there is some thought about making a film of My Name Is Asher Lev. ~ Chaim Potok

Supposedly I've got traces of an English accent, though I can't hear it. I must have inherited it from my mother, who's English, and then I think it was exacerbated by the fact that I live with an Australian. ~ Lev Grossman

People grow apart, and sometimes, there nothing anyone can do about it. ~ Jay Asher

I don't know what's going on with you,' the man says from across the counter, 'but I'm not taking your money.' He blows into a straw and pinches both ends shut.
I shake my head and reach back for my wallet. 'No, I'll pay.'
He winds the straw tighter and tighter. 'I'm serious. It was only a milkshake. And like I said, I don't know what's going on, and I don't know how I can help, but something's clearly gone wrong in your life, so I want you to keep your money.' His eyes search mine, and I know he means it.
I don't know what to say. Even if the words would come, my throat is so tight it won't let them escape. ~ Jay Asher

So, once more, the question is: Does the Bible forbid homosexual behavior? Well, I've already said that it does. The Bible is so realistic! You might not expect it to mention a topic like homosexual behavior, but in fact there are six places in the Bible - three in the Old Testament and three in the New Testament - where this issue is directly addressed - not to mention all the passages dealing with marriage and sexuality which have implications for this issue. In all six of these passages homosexual acts are unequivocally condemned.

In Leviticus 18.22 it says that it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man as with a woman. In Lev. 20.13 the death penalty is prescribed in Israel for such an act, along with adultery, incest, and bestiality. Now sometimes homosexual advocates make light of these prohibitions by comparing them to prohibitions in the Old Testament against having contact with unclean animals like pigs. Just as Christians today don't obey all of the Old Testament ceremonial laws, so, they say, we don't have to obey the prohibitions of homosexual actions. But the problem with this argument is that the New Testament reaffirms the validity of the Old Testament prohibitions of homosexual behavior, as we'll see below. This shows they were not just part of the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, which were done away with, but were part of God's everlasting moral law. Homosexual behavior is in God's sight a serious sin. The third place where homos ~ William Lane Craig

That is who I will be to Flame – wife, soul mate, angel. It does not matter in what terms Flame refers to me. He will always be the one my soul knows. He will always be the one my heart will rely on, when it is me who needs to be saved. That is what angels do, Asher. They guide and they save. If he needs me to be his angel right now, then that is who I will be. ~ Tillie Cole

That was one thing about books: once you read them they couldn't be unread. ~ Lev Grossman

Hey - Penny, is it?" Plum said. "That ought to pay for Quentin's library fines, don't you think? Or Alice could just punch you again, it's all good." But ~ Lev Grossman

It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost. ~ Lev Grossman

With her fingers running back up my arms, and all this sperm talk, things are getting a little too intense down below. I lean slightly forward, conveniently placing my forearms across my lap. ~ Jay Asher

Holding onto negativity makes you sick, I strongly believe that. So I release negativity by writing. ~ Asher Roth

Little is known about the love lives of the undead. Really, past the brain-eating, reanimated corpse angle, not much is said for the zombie's perspective. So they ate brains - big deal! Sure, they were corpses - so what? Indeed, there was the smell, but whose fault was that?
At first glance they were brain-hungry cannibals, (Mmm, brains. Maybe with a little cilantro or a garlic rub - mashed potatoes and brainsloaf - brains pot pie - penne a la brains...) but in reality, zombies were not the mindless man-eaters or virus-addled lunatics jonesing for human flesh depicted in the movies. Just like everything in life - or rather, unlife - things were more complicated. Zombies were, until very recently, people. And with that came wants, desires, longings. Needs.
Asher had been troubled by the zombie loneliness until Brenda, the attractive corpse he'd met in a less animated state earlier, pulled him into the cemetery, threw him down on a slab and shagged him silly. ~ Daniel Younger

Whilst stay-at-home persons are searching for truth, the apple will stay on the tree. ~ Lev Shestov

You cannot study magic. You cannot learn it. You must ingest it. Digest it. You must merge with it. And it with you. ~ Lev Grossman

There are also the people too bizarre to ignore, like Kyle Simpson. Future male stripper. ~ Jay Asher

Earth or Fillory, did it even matter? What was the huge conundrum? Everywhere you looked there was so much richness, you could never exhaust it. ~ Lev Grossman

Labyrinths were old sorcery, and subtle: good for recharging one's magical resources when they were running low. ~ Lev Grossman

Eliot, I love you like the brother I never had or wanted, ~ Lev Grossman

trick was just not wanting anything. That was power. That was courage: the courage not to love anyone or hope for anything. The ~ Lev Grossman

No!
I scream through the bars. Over the trees."No!"
Do not let her leave.
Do not let her leave that room!
He's not coming. ~ Jay Asher

I don't know exactly what it is, but it looks like interconnected websites where people show their photos and write about everything going on in their lives, like whether they found a parking spot or what they ate for breakfast."
"But why?" Josh asks. ~ Jay Asher

Once we came to accept the photographic image as reality, the way to its future simulation was open. ~ Lev Manovich

And I need this. That's all I can tell you. ~ Lev Grossman

I hear you snickering," Asher accuses. I can't even deny it. He looks up from the grass, eyebrows raised, ready to refute any argument I make. "I'll admit, this isn't going quite how I planned. You were suppose to lose, admiring my backside the entire way there, completely overwhelmed by my awesomeness. You were not supposed to strip me of my dignity. ~ Kaitlyn Davis

I'll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book. - William Shakespeare, The Tempest ~ Lev Grossman

Loyalty was their way of life. ~ Sophia Bar-Lev

People think what they want. That's what I've had to accept," he says. "I can fight it, but that's exhausting. I can feel hurt about it, but that's torture. Or I can decide it's their loss. ~ Jay Asher

I take it Asher called you?" "What's your endgame here, Henry? Why are you going? ~ Jennifer Lynn Barnes

He has to find his own way home. Faith is a journey. It doesn't have a stop and start date. It grows with time. Sometimes it falters and stumbles, but every misstep can be used to shape us."~Asher Powell ~ Tammy L. Gray

How in the world was I alone? Because I wanted to be. That's all I can say. It's all that makes sense to me. ~ Jay Asher

As a cultural form, database represents the world as a list of items and it refuses to order this list. In contrast, a narrative creates a cause-and-effect trajectory of seemingly unordered items (events). Therefore, database and narrative are natural enemies. Competing for the same territory of human culture, each claims an exclusive right to make meaning out of the world. ~ Lev Manovich

That's why you did it. You wanted your world to collapse around you. You wanted everything to get as dark as possible. ~ Jay Asher

You guys are always going off about how much money you have. Do you realize what's going on in this world right now?' All these black rappers? African rappers? Talking about how much money they have. Do you realize what's going on in Africa right now? It's just like, you guys are disgusting. Talking about billions and billions of dollars you have. And spending it frivolously, when you know, the Motherland is suffering beyond belief right now. ~ Asher Roth

But strange though it may seem, the more he judged, and the more he realized that men feared and acknowledged his right to judge, the more his innermost soul questioned man's right to judgment of any kind. ~ Lev Shestov

The joy of seeing Yuri Gagarin flying in space is only superseded by the joy of a good penalty save. ~ Lev Yashin

Personally, I think the "Potter" books have too many adverbs and not enough sex. ~ Lev Grossman

You don't have a heartbeat," I realized.
"Does that bother you?" He asked.
"No." I thought for a minute. "As long as you can feel things and care about things."
"It's a misconception that you need a heart to love," Asher whispered into my hair. ~ Jocelyn Davies

I think you're magicians because you're unhappy. A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength. "Most people carry that pain around inside them their whole lives, until they kill the pain by other means, or until it kills them. But ~ Lev Grossman

You're staring at me," I protest between bites of crawfish etouffee.
Asher lifts a shoulder. "Just watching in case you get foodgasmic again."
I hum as I swallow a particularly decadent bite. "I'm close. You like to watch, huh?"
His pupils dilate and his jaw goes a little slack as his gaze drops to my mouth. Just like that, we're not talking about food anymore. Maybe we never were. ~ Lexi Ryan

I didn't humiliate him by pointing it out because that's not how you treat friends. You don't judge them. You don't humiliate them. I bet he's been judging me all along. ~ Jay Asher

Pull something out and show me." I said thoughtlessly. Isaac started snickering, Ethan joined in. Asher was holding back a laugh, his cheeks turning pink. I thought about what I said and started laughing. There are just some things you can't say in a room full of guys. ~ B.L. Brunnemer

I thought to do something good by giving an interview to People, which was exceedingly foolish of me. I asked Aaron [Asher] to tell you that the Good Intentions Paving Company had fucked up again. The young interviewer turned my opinions inside out, cut out the praises and made it all sound like disavowal, denunciation and excommunication. Well, we're both used to this kind of thing, and beyond shock. In agreeing to take the call, and make a statement I was simply muddle-headed. But if I had been interviewed by an angel for the Seraphim and Cherubim Weekly I'd have said, as I actually did say to the crooked little slut, that you were one of our very best and most interesting writers. I would have added that I was greatly stimulated and entertained by your last novel, and that of course after three decades I understood perfectly well what you were saying about the writer's trade - how could I not understand, or miss suffering the same pains. Still our diagrams are different, and the briefest description of the differences would be that you seem to have accepted the Freudian explanation: A writer is motivated by his desire for fame, money and sexual opportunities. Whereas I have never taken this trinity of motives seriously. But this is an explanatory note and I don't intend to make a rabbinic occasion of it. Please accept my regrets and apologies, also my best wishes. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about the journalists; we can only hope that they will die off as the dee ~ Saul Bellow

There's a special gut-check moment the first time you write a scene in which somebody casts a spell. ~ Lev Grossman

Lev loosened his grip on me to raise Mal's rifle, but I whirled on him, bringing the mirror up, blinding him. "What the - " he grunted, squinting. Before he could recover, I slammed a knee into his groin. As he bent double, I put my hands on the back of his head and brought my knee up hard. There was a disgusting crunch, and I stepped backward as he fell to the ground clutching his nose, blood spurting between his fingers. "I did it!" I exclaimed. Oh, if only Botkin could see me now. "Come on!" Mal said, distracting me from my jubilation. ~ Leigh Bardugo

My body is my only tool, and spreading my legs open is my superpower. ~ Mia Asher

Any human act that gives rise to something new is referred to as a creative act, regardless of whether what is created is a physical object or some mental or emotional construct that lives within the person who created it and is known only to him. ~ Lev S. Vygotsky

He was aware for the first time of how quiet the city had gotten. After dark the streets and canals seemed to empty out. As if Venice felt less of an obligation to pretend to be part of this millennium at night, and had reverted to its medieval self again. ~ Lev Grossman