Theodore Bikel Quotes

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.

Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route.

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

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

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.

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.

Audiences are audiences.

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.

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

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

I don’t speak out because I am an actor nor will I keep silent because I am an actor. I respect my profession, but it endows me with no special privileges; but it also does not limit me or muzzle me. I am a person and a citizen with the attendant responsibilities of voice and vote.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

I always sang, I always acted, I always played.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

I’m exceedingly proud of being an actor, but I never recommend it to anyone.

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.

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

I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.

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

You learn more from the flops than from the hits.

I created the role of Captain Von Trapp.

When something is moving you get that intake of breath and that stillness from the audience.

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.