Important Quotations Explained
I put five tubes of oil color, a bottle of turpentine, and a bottle of linseed oil into my coat pockets. I slipped two bristle brushes into my loose-leaf notebook. Before I left the store I bought a small canvas board; I had enough money for that.
I saw a folded piece of paper on the chair I had occupied earlier. I stopped and picked it up and unfolded it. It was a pencil drawing, a photographic likeness of my face made with an exquisite economy of line and without light and shade. The lower right-hand corner of the drawing contained a signature: Jacob Kahn. Below the signature was the date: 1—10—56.
Away from my world, alone in an apartment that offered me neither memories nor roots, I began to find old and distant memories of my own, long buried by pain and time and slowly brought to the surface now…. Now I would have to paint the street that could not be seen.
I saw my mythic ancestor. Come with me, my precious Asher. You and I will walk together through the centuries, each of us for our separate deeds that unbalanced the world.
Wherever I travel now, there is always someone who knows your name. 'Are you the father of Asher Lev, the painter?' they ask me. It's a very strange feeling. Asher Lev, the painter.
