“… It was the knowing that there had been a happier time, a place of joy and peace and security, that made the sudden absence of it all so agonizing… Not the agony of what was, but the agony of… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“What’s the harm in forgetting? What does remembering do? Kugel had read that the war in the Balkans was referred to as the War of the Grandmothers; that after 50 years of peace, it was the grandmothers who reminded their… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“Every Jew was the last Jew; Tevye the Terminal, every single one. Yet, Kugel couldn't help but observe, in all that time - no… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“I spent the best years of my life atoning for something I didn't do, something my parents didn't do, something done just about before… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“The Kugels, Kugel hated to admit, might just have to, in the event of genocide, rely on the kindness of strangers. Mother used to… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
Vans are the vehicles of murderers. Serial Killers. Rapists. Thieves. Nothing good ever happens in a van. Police should be allowed to arrest van… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“I kind of like it up here, Kugel said. It's got a certain fatalistic charm, a certain je ne sais fucked.” — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“He could pull this off. He was sure of it. It would have been one thing to protect Anne Frank from the Nazis; he… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“He took the diary from Mother's hand and turned it over. The heartbreaking something, he read, of a tragic whatever.” — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
Write something dangerous. Say something you shouldn’t. Blow something up. But well. — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
His intelligence only exacerbated the guilt Kugel felt for bringing him into the world. It was one thing to have condemned a child to… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
Kugel was a firm believer that death was not always a bad thing - that life often reached such levels of crapitude that dying… — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
“There is hurt in this world. There is pain. Hoping there won't be only makes it worse.” — Shalom Auslander Copy Share Image
