... An Artist Is A Person First.

My Name Is Asher Lev... I Am A Traitor, An Apostate, A Self-hater, An Inflicter Of Shame Upon My Family, My Friends, My People; Also, I Am A Mocker Of Ideas Sacred To Christians, A Blasphemous Manipulator Of Modes And Forms Revered By Gentiles For Two Thousand Years.

Honest Differences Of Opinion Should Never Be Permitted To Destroy A Friendship.

Truth Has To Be Given In Riddles. People Can't Take Truth If It Comes Charging At Them Like A Bull. The Bull Is Always Killed. You Have To Give People The Truth In A Riddle, Hide It So They Go Looking For It And Find It Piece By Piece; That Way They Learn To Live With It.

You Have To Want To Listen To It, And Then You Can Hear It. It Has A Strange, Beautiful Texture. It Doesn't Always Talk. Sometimes-sometimes It Cries, And You Can Hear The Pain Of The World In It. It Hurts To Listen To It Then. But You Have To.

I've Begun To Realize That You Can Listen To Silence And Learn From It. It Has A Quality And A Dimension All Its Own.