How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was inevitable: Yankel fell in love with his never-wife. (7.34)
It seems silly that Yankel would fall in love with the lies he tells Brod about his wife… but admit it. We've all fallen in love with a fictional character.
Quote #2
"Do you think [your grandfather] loved [Augustine]?" […] "It seems so improbably that he could have loved her. But isn't there something strange about the picture, the closeness between them, even though they're not looking at each other? They way that they aren't looking at each other. The distance." (10.9)
Jonathan has trouble believing that his grandfather could have loved anyone but his grandmother. Isn't that the way most of us view old people? As never having youth or lives before we came along? (Just imagine your grandparents having sex. Um, actually don't.)
Quote #3
[Brod] had to satisfy herself with the idea of love—loving the loving of things whose existence she didn't care at all about. Love itself became the object of her love. (11.66)
It seems natural that Brod, who questions the existence of God, would also question the existence of love. If she can't see it and touch it, she doesn't know it's real. (And Brod being a magical baby, she probably still isn't quite sure even if she can touch it.)