Jacob Kahn
"The world is a terrible place. I do not sculpt and paint to make the world sacred. I sculpt and pant to give permanence to my feelings about how terrible this world truly is. Nothing is real to me except my own feelings; nothing is true except my own feelings as I see them all around me in in my sculptures and paintings. I know these feelings are true, because if they were not true they would make art that is as terrible as the world. You do not understand me yet, Asher Lev. My little Hasid." (Potok 226)
"Asher Lev, there are two ways of painting the world. In the whole history of art there are only these two ways. One is the way of Greece and Africa, which sees the world as a geometric design. The other is the way of Persia and India and China, which sees the would as a flower." (Potok 225)