How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I went to my room, sat at my desk, and drew pictures of my uncle. I made him very round and dark-bearded, and I gave him a kind smile and dark eyes. He always wore dark-blue suits, but I made his suit light blue because he did not feel dark blue to me. (30.19)
This quote refers to Asher's early childhood habit of drawing pretty much everyone he came into contact with on a regular basis. Asher's creativity is obvious here: he draws in order to make sense of his world, and he draws people as he sees them, not necessarily as they are.
Quote #2
Then, holding the pad with the drawing on my lap, I carefully brushed the burnt end of the cigarette onto my mother's face. The ash left an ugly smudge. I rubbed the smudge with my pinkie. It spread smoothly, leaving a gray film. I used the ash from another cigarette. The gray film deepened. I worked a long time. I used cigarette ash on the part of her shoulder not in the sunlight and the folds of her housecoat. The contours of her body began to come alive. (34.1)
Here Asher uses his creative skill to bring a drawing of his mother to life with the help of the cigarettes she's been chainsmoking in the wake of her brother's death. Pretty impressive stuff, especially considering that he's still in elementary school.
Quote #3
I would learn to draw my feelings of ice and darkness and a street crying. There was nothing I could not do. (49.3)
As a young child, Asher is very confident in his creative abilities. He knows that he can do pretty much anything—like draw a picture of a street crying—if he puts his mind to it. The funny thing is he's probably right: he's got an impressive artistic gift, and his creativity is basically boundless.
Quote #4
I watched my fingers trembling on top of the notebook. I put my hands under my thighs. I could feel them trembling. A while later, I opened the notebook and looked again at the page. I had drawn a picture of Stalin dead in his coffin. (100.1)
Sometimes Asher's creativity surprises and frightens him. This is one of those cases. After not drawing for years, he suddenly finds himself drawing terrifying pictures of dead Stalin right after Stalin dies. Art works in mysterious ways.
Quote #5
What was a drawing in the face of the Other Side? What was a pen and paper, what were pastels, in the face of the evil of the shell? (119.1)
Asher sometimes loses faith in his own creativity, especially in his ability to use it to effect change in the world. This quote also demonstrates how powerless he feels in his creativity against the monolithic force of religion in his life.
Quote #6
I felt the street as part of my own parkway, its trees and benches and lampposts part of what I saw each day as I gazed through the window of my living room onto the world I wanted to create anew with line and color and texture and shape. (219.1)
Asher's creative mind is constantly working to redefine things in new and fascinating ways, especially the environment he grew up in. This quote perfectly describes Asher's attitude towards his surroundings: wanting to absorb them and recreate them in his paintings.
Quote #7
'An artist needs time to do nothing but sit around and let ideas come to him.'(251.1)
This is Jacob Kahn's advice on creativity to Asher, and it ends up bearing out pretty well. Asher spends his summers with Jacob Kahn at Kahn's beach house, playing in the surf and meditating on what his next paintings will be. He uses this method to paint the Brooklyn Crucifixion series.
Quote #8
'We changed the eyes of the world, Asher Lev. Picasso and Braque with painting and Jacob Kahn with sculpture.'(263.5)
Jacob Kahn explains to Asher the transformative power of art and creativity. A small group of artists working closely together can change the way everyone sees, which is a pretty incredible thing to think about, especially if you're one of those artists. At least Jacob Kahn's modest.
Quote #9
A balance had to be given the world; the demonic had to be reshaped into meaning. Had a dream-haunted Jew spent the rest of his life sculpting the form out of the horror of his private night? (323.1)
As Asher sets to work on Brooklyn Crucifixion, he struggles to understand the events of the past in his own creative terms. In this quote, he's wondering about the life of Jacob Kahn: specifically, has Jacob Kahn given meaning to the awful things he witnessed in the past by describing them in sculptural form? (The answer is yes.)
Quote #10
The demonic and the divine were two aspects of the same force. Creation was demonic and divine. Creativity was demonic and divine. (367.5)
This is basically the book's Defining Quote on creativity. In My Name Is Asher Lev, we see how creativity can tear people apart and also heal them, destroy and rebuild families, ruin lives and then repair them. The takeaway? Creativity is a really powerful thing.