Do Not Cut Lose From Your Longings

I Never Regard My Characters, My Protagonists, As Personifications. It's Not That I Sit By My Desk And I Pick Up A Character Who Will Be The Spokesperson Of The Israeli Left, Another One Will Be The Spokesperson Of The Right, Another One Will Be The Spokesperson Of Middle Eastern Jews, European Jews, Religions Jews And So On.

The Alternative To Fanaticism And To Death Is Not Some Miraculous Realization That Someone Has Been Wrong And He Has To Apologize. No, The Answer To Fanaticism And To Death Is Curiosity And Compromise And Concession.

Literature Belongs First And Foremost To The Language In Which It Is Being Written.

The Very Same Book, Even If It Is Translated Very Accurately, Let's Say From Hebrew Into English Or From English Into Hebrew, Becomes A Different Book Because Language Is A Musical Instrument.

When I Need To Take A Side, I Write A Newspaper Article And I Tell My Government, "you Should Not Do That, You Should Do This." They Don't Listen To Me, But I've Been Doing This For Sixty Years Now. But, When I Write A Novel, I Am Not In That Business. I Follow The Way People Change. I Follow The Way People, Who Are Very Antagonized To One Another Become Very Close To One Another And Vice-versa. Sometimes I Follow The Way People Who Are Intimately Close To Each Other Move Apart.