"A perfect storm is in the making: financial uncertainty, economic downturn, government cuts, rising unemployment and a future that looks less clear the more we try to fathom it."

"Much can and must be done by governments, but they cannot of themselves change lives."

"Since Hiroshima and the Holocaust, science no longer holds its pristine place as the highest moral authority. Instead, that role is taken by human rights. It follows that any assault on Jewish life - on Jews or Judaism or the Jewish state - must be cast in the language of human rights."

"Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins."

"History's a resource."

"Well, well, Henry James is pretty good, though he is of the nineteenth century, and that glaringly."

"It's so great in Hollywood now. You have people past 40 sitting and talking about serious stuff, writing and making movies and TV, but there's laser pistols and superheroes and alien monsters involved. It's viable and mainstream."

"He who reads widely and ponders deeply builds an unshakeable inner citadel. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history."