Etgar Keret Quotes

For me taking a pragmatic decision when it comes to art is almost an oxymoron. The reason I first picked up a pen and wrote a story had nothing pragmatic in it.

The best stories you usually hear are stories that people feel some type of urgency about.

Hebrew was frozen, like frozen peas, fresh out of the Bible.

Hebrew is this unique thing that you cannot translate to any other language. It has to do with its history.

I'm not saying that I don't experience people in life as evil, but writing is not a place of alienation; writing is the place where we can try to be human.

There are two kinds of people, those who like to sleep next to the wall, and those who like to sleep next to the people who push them off the bed.

Sometimes the stories are smarter than me, and suddenly these things start to make sense.

The amazing thing about an artistic collaboration is that it is as intense and intimate as a romantic one. Sometimes even more so.

It's funny, but I think my stories - the good ones - they're much smarter than I am.

I think that becoming a parent kind of made me try to be more responsible. And it made me much more stressful.

I really believe hatred is not a primal emotion, in that you can't find it in nature. It's basically some kind of distortion of fear.

Writing is very castrating in the moment. Fiction in general, it has no function, nobody asks for it.

I think when you write, you should call it a "writing spree." I don't write every day, and I don't write regularly.

I think that, in Israel, the greatest fear that people have, and I have it, too, is fear of genocide.

Apparently, I'm very, very popular in jails. They often ask me to come and speak.

In the last war, people became vocal from the right-wing point of view: if you're liberal, then you're a traitor.

If we're a family and your brother wishes you death, it's not a very happy family.

What connects me so strongly to Israel is the fact that I'm second generation.

This idea where, in this safe haven for Jews, Jews will threaten to kill other Jews, it wasn't in the brochure.

When my books were translated, it was always about the characters, because the unique language aspect was lost in translation.

I don't like the expression "writer's block" because I think it presupposes that you have a problem with your plumbing. I really think it's the other way around.

Experience has taught me that there are some situations in which it's better to keep quiet. That is, I tried to keep quiet. Life gives me good advice, but sometimes I refuse to take it.