Joseph Epstein
Joseph Epstein
Joseph Epstein, also known as Colonel Gilles and as Joseph Andrej, was a Polish-born Jewish communist activist and a French Resistance leader during World War II. He was executed by the Germans...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth9 January 1937
CountryUnited States of America
drinking wine beer
That wine drinking is more effete than beer drinking? No question.
defined
No one has really ever defined what a friend is.
thinking envy anti-semitism
I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.
giving important purpose
We do not choose to be born.We do not--most of us, choose to die, or the times or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live--Courageously or in cowardice, Honorably or dishonorably, With purpose or adrift. We decide what is important and what is trivial. What makes us significant is what we DO, Or REFUSE TO DO. WE DECIDE and WE CHOOSE--and so we give definition to our lives.
reading sacred serious
The problem for me is that reading is, I won't say a sacred, but nevertheless a pretty serious act.
jobs cat animal
A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it.
running nostalgia deeper
No nostalgia runs deeper than that for something one has never known and now cannot obtain.
fun envy sin
Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
ice icy shows
Not to like ice cream is to show oneself uninterested in food.
life dream country
All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.
believe views two
I was recently asked what it takes to become a writer. Three things, I answered: first, one must cultivate incompetence at almost every other form of profitable work. This must be accompanied, second, by a haughty contempt for all the forms of work that one has established one cannot do. To these two must be joined, third, the nuttiness to believe that other people can be made to care about your opinions and views and be charmed by the way you state them. Incompetence, contempt, lunacy—once you have these in place, you are set to go.
may faces tape
I am not merely a habitual quoter but an incorrigible one. I am, I may as well face it, more quotatious than an old stock-market ticker-tape machine, except that you can't unplug me.
regret wife terrible
My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't
people musical training
I just know so many people who have six or seven foreign languages and have read everything and have musical training and they are still dorks