How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #7
They had lived years without me. Not they possessed a language of shared experience in which I was nonexistent. (291.1)
Asher on his parents coming home from Vienna. Isn't there a Dixie Chicks song about this?
Quote #8
I remembered my grandfather, the scholar, the recluse, the dweller in the study halls of synagogues and academies of learning. What had transformed him from recluse and scholar to emissary of the Rebbe's father? (323.4)
Asher wonders about his grandfather and how he transformed into the wandering scholar he eventually became before being murdered by drunken peasants. His grandfather's life is of particular importance to him because it was his unfinished scholarly work that Aryeh has decided to complete—and that Asher is neglecting to complete by becoming an artist.
Quote #9
I painted swiftly in a strange nerveless frenzy of energy. For all the pain you suffered, my mama. For all the anguish this picture of pain will cause you. (329.1)
Asher thinks this as he's painting the Brooklyn Crucifixion series, demonstrating how the painting is more or less dedicated to his parents, even though he knows it's going to enrage them.