Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Isaac Bashevis Singer Novelist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Nov 21, 1902
  • Died: Jul 24, 1991

Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish-born Jewish-American author. The Polish form of his birth name was Izaak Zynger and he used his mother's first name in an initial pseudonym, Izaak Baszewis, which he later expanded to the form under which he is now known. He was a leading figure in the Yiddish literary movement, writing and publishing only in Yiddish, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. He also was awarded two U.S. National Book Awards, one in Children's Literature for his memoir A Day Of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw and one in Fiction for his collection, A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories.

Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.

What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it.

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.

Life is God's novel. Let him write it.

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

Kindness, I've discovered, is everything in life.

I am thankful, of course, for the prize and thankful to God for each story, each idea, each word, each day.

The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.

I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.