Nathan Englander Quotes

Powerful Nathan Englander for Daily Growth

About Nathan Englander

Nathan Englander, born on December 19, 1967, in Brooklyn, New York, is an acclaimed American novelist and short-story writer. Raised in a Jewish family with strong ties to Orthodox Judaism, his upbringing heavily influenced his literary work, which often explores themes of faith, identity, and culture within the context of Judaism. Englander attended Princeton University, where he graduated in 1989. His writing career began in earnest after he published "The Tumblers," a story about two young Orthodox boys in Jerusalem, in The New Yorker in 1992. This story was later included in his debut collection, "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" (1999), which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. His second book, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" (2005), is a collection of interconnected short stories that delve into the complexities of Jewish identity in modern America. The title story was adapted into a Broadway play in 2016. Englander's most notable work to date is the novel "Dinner at the Center of the Earth" (2009), which centers around an Orthodox Jewish family grappling with their faith and identity during a crisis. The book was shortlisted for several awards, including the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award. In 2017, Englander published "Kaddish.com," a novel that explores grief, technology, and the enduring power of tradition. His latest work, "The Ministry of Special Cases" (2010), is a narrative about a Jewish couple in Argentina trying to find their disappeared daughter. Englander's writing is characterized by its vivid imagery, rich character development, and deep exploration of the human condition. He continues to write and teach at various institutions, including New York University.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The space between us was no longer a place to live but a wall to climb."

This quote emphasizes the growing distance or separation in a relationship, where the gap that once provided comfort and connection has transformed into an obstacle or barrier. The people involved are no longer finding solace in their mutual space, instead seeing it as something to be overcome. This could symbolize various types of relationships, including personal ones, where communication and understanding have deteriorated over time, leading to conflict and distance.

"Hatred is such a greedy master. It wants more and more until the only thing left to hate are yourself."

This quote emphasizes the destructive nature of hatred, suggesting it is an insatiable force that grows increasingly self-directed if not controlled or addressed. Hatred demands a constant supply of negative energy, and as it consumes more and more of the person harboring it, eventually, the only remaining object of hate becomes oneself. This insight suggests that perpetuating hatred can lead to self-loathing and ultimately hinder personal growth and peace.

"We all have stories, stories that are our own and stories that are someone else's."

This quote emphasizes the idea that everyone has their unique personal narratives (stories that are one's own), but also encounters tales belonging to others in their lives. It highlights the universal nature of storytelling, where we share experiences, learn from each other, and build connections through the exchange of stories. Moreover, it suggests that our individual identities are often shaped by both personal and collective narratives, underscoring the importance of empathy, understanding, and respect for others' stories.

"The truth is often just one of many things you might say for effect."

This quote suggests that in some contexts, the "truth" may not always be the primary intention; instead, it can serve as a tool to achieve a desired outcome or impact on others. It underscores the power of words and the importance of considering not only what is factual but also the intended effect of communication.

"Language is a house of many rooms; in it we find only rooms, not the house itself."

This quote by Nathan Englander suggests that language, while containing numerous individual concepts (rooms), is not the entirety or essence of reality (the house). Language is a tool for understanding and expressing ideas, but it does not fully capture or define the world around us. Instead, we discover fragments in the form of words, phrases, and meanings (rooms within the house), rather than experiencing the whole truth or meaning itself.

I am a fifth-generation American, but from a young age, I went to yeshiva. I spent 12 hours a day with rabbis, and I think in Yiddish. To this day, I have to go back and unravel my writing and polish it so everyone doesn't sound like an old Jewish woman.

- Nathan Englander

Woman, Young, I Think, Yiddish

I'd chosen to dedicate my life to writing, and I asked myself, 'if you write your whole life, and nobody ever sees a word, is it as a writer that you die?'

- Nathan Englander

Myself, My Life, Die, Dedicate

Empathy is what obsesses me. And watching empathy recede in the world is terrifying.

- Nathan Englander

Empathy, World, Terrifying, Recede

Philip Roth has been a huge influence on me. The early books I read in my teens and twenties.

- Nathan Englander

Been, Read, Roth, Huge Influence

So writing stories is not easier in comparison to the playwriting or translation; the stories are easier in league with them.

- Nathan Englander

Writing, Comparison, Stories, Translation

There was a terrible fear for me when I started writing, which was that if you'd been denied unbelievably tumultuous experience, you didn't have permission to write.

- Nathan Englander

Been, Started, Which, Tumultuous

Yes, there is a way I was taught to think that's very suited to writing. And, of course, I'm thankful to have grown up in a world filled with stories.

- Nathan Englander

Think, Very, Stories, Suited

I think in circles; I speak in circles. I unravel my thoughts that way.

- Nathan Englander

Thoughts, Think, I Think, Unravel

I lived in Jerusalem with the Temple Mount as my holy site. My Palestinian neighbors lived in Al-Quds with the Haram al-Sharif.

- Nathan Englander

Holy, Jerusalem, Site, Mount

I didn't sleep the night I finished 'Sister Hills.' It was so unsettling. I felt really wild. I didn't have a clue. It's a very loaded subject, and I did not know what I had. I was interested in watching how choices unfold over time. It's a story that's raising questions.

- Nathan Englander

Questions, Very, Subject, Hills

Everything is so much clearer once a world is framed. Maybe it sounds crazy, but with writing, it's infinity that is limiting and the limited that allows for the truly infinite. Once all those elements are in place in a story, the brain is truly freed up to imagine without end.

- Nathan Englander

Without, Maybe, Infinite, Infinity

I hardly grew up mono-lingually! I was raised religious, so there's a tradition of semi-access to a second language. When I learned my ABCs, they taught us our Aleph-Bet at the same time.

- Nathan Englander

Language, Religious, Our, Hardly

There's no safety in anything, but in the arts, there is really this idea of no promises. I didn't follow the writing dream for safety.

- Nathan Englander

Follow, Idea, Really, Promises

Twitter is the best art for writers. I find it enticing.

- Nathan Englander

Art, Find, Twitter, Enticing

There's an Armed Forces Haggadah and an Alcoholics Anonymous Haggadah and an LGBT Haggadah. Some people make a new Haggadah every year. It's a real living document... They're just constantly made throughout time.

- Nathan Englander

Year, Some, Document, Anonymous

There was a summer in college where I worked for a stretch picking up garbage at the beach. On the early shift, it was very meditative walking the shoreline and crisscrossing the sand, picking up the junk people had dropped or tossed or that the ocean had returned. And there was this strange fantasy element to it.

- Nathan Englander

College, Shift, Very, Tossed

The reason people get afraid of writing real, honest journalism and fiction, and the reason corrupted people and demagogues are afraid of journalism and fiction and poetry across the world, is because it is a subversive form.

- Nathan Englander

Reason, Fiction, Corrupted, Journalism

When I wrote my novel, 'The Ministry of Special Cases,' I couldn't even brush my teeth. I had to write in isolation from everything else. I thought a play would take away from my fiction, but the more projects I work on, the more time I have.

- Nathan Englander

Play, Away, Projects, Everything Else

When I was living in Jerusalem, I used to write in a coffee shop called Tmol Shilshom. I'd sit at the same table every day and work. And right next to my seat was a weathered wingback chair by a window.

- Nathan Englander

Every Day, Next, Shop, Table

Your brain forms a story and, if you're lucky, there's a line where the story takes over the brain. You don't even know what you have.

- Nathan Englander

Lucky, Over, Line, Forms

I moved to New York because I thrive there.

- Nathan Englander

New York, New, Moved, Thrive

So many people discuss, you know, Israel/Palestine as if it's people on a spectrum.

- Nathan Englander

Spectrum, So Many People, Discuss

I always call myself either an optimistic pessimist or a pessimistic optimist - I'm not sure which way it goes.

- Nathan Englander

Always, Sure, Which, Pessimistic

For a book to function... it has to be a functioning reality. The character has to be real, and I imagine that's exactly what happens for a spy who is in deep cover.

- Nathan Englander

Book, Deep, Imagine, Spy

I'm very interested in how people change.

- Nathan Englander

Change, How, Very, People Change

I think my love for rhythm in language comes from repeating the same words, the same sounds, over and over again day after day for so many years.

- Nathan Englander

Love, Think, Over, Repeating

I spent my whole childhood being told, 'Israel is surrounded by enemies who are trying to push it into the sea.' But can't Gaza feel the same way? Personally, I'm frozen in time.

- Nathan Englander

Feel, Surrounded, Whole, Push

I'm kind of in love with my theater agent. I'm a true naive about the theater, a total innocent.

- Nathan Englander

Love, Agent, Total, Naive

Sometimes I feel like those born-again folk, always working on their faith, but I'm always working on my atheism. We all have our struggles.

- Nathan Englander

Always, Like, Atheism, Struggles

I'm just very interested, fascinated, heartbroken, obsessed with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and our need to find peace on that front... Everyone's always, like, victim and avenger at the same time.

- Nathan Englander

Always, Obsessed, Very, Conflict

As someone who spent a lot of years living in Jerusalem, one of the great perks is that when you come back, and you get into these Israel arguments in your American-Jewish clan, you can really just silence them by saying, 'I lived there.' So we used it like a bludgeon.

- Nathan Englander

Back, Used, Your, Perks

You spend so much time as a writer telling straight and linear stories.

- Nathan Englander

Straight, Telling, Linear, So Much Time

I'd say that in place of a singular phobic-level terror, I keep a whole collection of running, yet manageable, fears.

- Nathan Englander

Say, Terror, Whole, Singular

Human experience is infinite. Lives are infinite. Stories are infinite. Just because one story has gravity in it doesn't mean you can't write a different one with gravity in it.

- Nathan Englander

Infinite, Stories, Lives, Human Experience

I was resistant to the Internet. I was afraid of it.

- Nathan Englander

Internet, Afraid, Resistant

Palestine isn't a state when it concerns statehood. When it comes to warring, it's a state, yes? The Palestinians, they live in a country, for the purpose of war.

- Nathan Englander

Purpose, Country, Yes, Concerns

I wrote a novel, so now they can call me a novelist. I tell stories; that's it.

- Nathan Englander

Call, Stories, Wrote, Novelist

It's so easy to call something a Jewish story or a gay story or a woman's story. Aesthetically, if a story is not universal, it has failed. Your obligation is to the story. One rule creatively, and emotionally, is its universality.

- Nathan Englander

Woman, Rule, Universality, Creatively

What I'm trying to say is that a lot that lies behind being able to live the writing life is psychological and wrapped up in ideas of self-definition.

- Nathan Englander

Behind, Say, Psychological, Wrapped

I don't think it's the writer's job to give answers or to give opinions. In fact, when a writer has answers, I think the work ends up being corrupted. It becomes didactic. What a book does is share a consciousness and invite people to explore the questions as best as you can.

- Nathan Englander

Fact, I Think, Didactic, Invite

Every book is vulnerable, and every book is nerve-wracking, but I've never been both so excited and terrified to have a book coming into the world. It's an expressly loaded subject, one on which you can't win.

- Nathan Englander

Excited, Been, Which, Expressly

I love those books and movies where someone turns because they're blackmailed or they're passed over for promotion.

- Nathan Englander

Love, Over, Turns, Promotion

With each book, I've found myself more and more able to draw off the personal and still be as vulnerable as I need to be as a writer.

- Nathan Englander

More, Need, Still, Vulnerable

I understand if everyone looking at me is seeing a Jew and seeing me as a kind of 'other.' But I can't be expected to see myself that way. That is, to me, Jewish is the normal way to be; it's not a type of being.

- Nathan Englander

Normal, Other, Everyone, Jew

There's no such thing as being a cultural Jew. You're religious or you're not.

- Nathan Englander

Cultural, Religious, Being, Jew

When you see 'editor' on a book, there are many permutations of what that title can mean.

- Nathan Englander

Mean, See, Editor, Title

My mother raised me very clearly that if you cross the street, you will die. If you go outside, you will die. If you play sports, you will likely die. That's what I was getting at home.

- Nathan Englander

Play, Die, Very, Outside

I know nobody believes in peace anymore, but what else is there to work toward? As the years have gone by, peace seems like more and more of an impossibility.

- Nathan Englander

Work, More, Like, Impossibility

Whatever part of writing that is subconscious is a thing that no one has access to.

- Nathan Englander

Writing, Access, Part, Subconscious

Every nation should wrestle with the question of what it means to defend itself, what it means to take revenge.

- Nathan Englander

Means, Take, Itself, Wrestle

When you're in a world, and your parents are one way, and you're told, 'This is how the whole world is, and this is how you're supposed to be,' and you're terribly unhappy in that world, it's a very scary thing.

- Nathan Englander

Very, Whole, Terribly, Scary Thing

I feel very lucky that I have this career that allows me to say, 'I'm ready to start now on this project,' and I can go and do it.

- Nathan Englander

Career, Lucky, Very, Project

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