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What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.

Theodore Bikel

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Theodore Bikel
Age: 91 †
Born: 1924
Born: May 2
Died: 2015
Died: July 21
Actor
Businessperson
Film Actor
Musician
Politician
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Trade Unionist
Vienna
Austria
Theodore Meir Bikel
Make
Claim
Ethnocentric
Claims
Sectarian
Mines
Cultures
Mine
Arrogance
Neither
Superior
Pride
Superiors
Moving
Jewish
Culture
Moves

More quotes by Theodore Bikel

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Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival?
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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.
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No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.
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I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.
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Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples.
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You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.
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As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
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We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.
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It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'
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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.
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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.
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Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?
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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.
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An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.'
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But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.
Theodore Bikel
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I always sang, I always acted, I always played.
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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.
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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.
Theodore Bikel
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I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.
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The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.
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