I BELIEVE LIFE IS NOT MADE OF YEARS, BUT OF MOMENTS. Some are good; others are not. Some are luminous; others are dark.

WHEN PEOPLE SAY MY NAME, automatically they think of those experiences [at Auschwitz]. And yet I have written almost 50 books. Somehow I am identified with that subject. All my other books are jealous of Night.

AT THE END OF THE WAR, I had the feeling that at least certain lessons had been learned. Because if Auschwitz couldn’t cure the world of anti-Semitism, what will?

EACH TIME I HAVE RETURNED TO AUSCHWITZ, it has been in an official capacity—except once when I went with my son and my nephew. They wanted me to bring them back to those places from my past. It was so moving and so intimate that I don’t think I can speak about it.

I DON’T THINK WE SHOULD BOYCOTT [THE OLYMPICS] because I think China will change its policy toward Tibet. The Dalai Lama is a close friend of mine, and when he got the [U.S.] Congressional Gold Medal, I spoke. I reminded congress that 22 years earlier, I received the medal and said to President Reagan, ‘I belong to a tradition that commands me to speak truth to power’—incidentally, this expression has become very popular—and now by honoring the Dalai Lama, congress gives power to truth.

I BELIEVE IN PROGRESS; of course I believe, I am a Jew. The Jewish tradition commands me to believe in the Messianic era still to come. The problem today is, can we transform information into knowledge? We must transform knowledge into sensitivity and then transform sensitivity into commitment.

FOR ME, FRIENDSHIP IS A KIND OF MYSTICAL TRADITION. One doesn’t know why a friend is a friend. But once it’s there, it cannot be uprooted.

IF THE WAR didn’t change me, do you think the Nobel can? The only thing is that it amplified the message.

HATRED IS CONTAGIOUS. He who hates, hates everybody. It begins with hating Jews and then minorities and then genders and then other religious groups. Hate is a dynamic force. The essential answer is education.

TODAY IS DIFFERENT; today, there are anti-Semites in the world, but there is no anti-Semitism [as an official policy].

Elie Wiesel is university professor at Boston University and the 1986 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.