Theodore Bikel Quotes

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

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

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?

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

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I created the role of Captain Von Trapp.

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

As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.

Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.

In my world, history comes down to language and art.

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

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

Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really.

I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. To me it was meaningless. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sings about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.

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.

Accents. I'm very good with accents. I'm exceedingly good.

You learn more from the flops than from the hits.

'Visiting Mr. Green' is a good play. I enjoy being in it, and I have a wonderful colleague, Aidan deSalaiz, to work with. Audiences like it a lot. What's not to like?

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

There is no role I cannot play except a midget.

In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace.

It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'

You cannot please all of the people all of the time, and that is truer in the arts than anywhere else.

I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.

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.

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.

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

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

Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.

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

Every actor wants to direct and produce, but I made a conscious decision when I was in college to understand the 'business' of 'show business.'