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You cross a border and the policeman or the frontier policeman look at you, What are you doing here? Why are you coming? How long will you stay? Well, if I had nearly enough years, I would write a novel about being a refugee.

Elie Wiesel

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Elie Wiesel
Age: 87 †
Born: 1928
Born: September 30
Died: 2016
Died: July 2
Autobiographer
Humanist
Journalist
Judaic Scholar
Novelist
Philosopher
Political Activist
Professor
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Sighetu Marmaţiei
Eliezer Wiesel
A-7713
Élie Wiesel
Long
Coming
Refugee
Years
Write
Border
Would
Look
Borders
Wells
Nearly
Well
Cross
Policeman
Looks
Crosses
Frontier
Enough
Stay
Policemen
Writing
Novel
Frontiers

More quotes by Elie Wiesel

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I do not deal with the text [of the Bible] scientifically. I read it, I'm interested in its layers of meaning, but my relation to it is much more an emotional one.
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Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.
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[Memory] is a passion no less powerful or pervasive than love. It is [the ability] to live in more than one world, to prevent the past from fading, and to call upon the future to illuminate it.
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In the beginning there was faith - which is childish trust - which is vain and illusion - which is dangerous.
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Sometimes I think I prefer the storyteller in [Roman Vishniac] to the photographer. But aren't they one and the same?
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Naturally, the human being wants to forget pain.
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Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.
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Every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering not to share them would mean to betray them.
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In Talmudic literature, certainly in the beginning, he was like a human being - except he was a serpent. But he was talking and walking and probably dreaming.
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I have a tremendous respect for Professor [Frank Moore] Cross.
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Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response.
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[Tibet] never sought any territory. All it wanted is the conquest of the soul, that people should attain a kind of inner sovereignty, inner independence, inner freedom. And inner strength to attain the absolute.
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Fanaticism in many lands has surfaced as the greatest threat to the world. Indifference to its consequences would be a serious mistake.
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How can a human being be illegal?
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Now, when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy to my heart. And it simply says, look, people have learned from history.
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I have to be self-conscious of what I'm trying to do with my life.
Elie Wiesel
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I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.
Elie Wiesel
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There is no word in Hebrew for religion, by the way.
Elie Wiesel
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What I do, I want to do with all my being.
Elie Wiesel
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Writing should not be routine writing should actually be the opposite of procedural because otherwise the written word would become a routine word.
Elie Wiesel