Israel has obviously not liberated the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank. We have occupied them, but we have not liberated them.

Every single pleasure I can imagine or have experienced is more delightful, more of a pleasure, if you take it in small sips, if you take your time. Reading is not an exception.

Fundamentalist s live life with an exclamation point. I prefer to live my life with a question mark.

Writing a poem is like having an affair, a one-night stand; a short story is a romance, a relationship; a novel is a marriage-one has to be cunning, devise compromises, and make sacrifices.

Words create conceptions and self-conceptions and ultimately nations. They can start and stop wars. They can would and heal. Choosing words carefully is a moral responsibility.

A conflict begins and ends in the hearts and minds of people, not in the hilltops.

All of my novels are democracies.

The only way to keep a dream, any dream at all, to keep a dream perfect and rosy and intact and unsullied is never to live it out.

The opposite of compromise is not integrity. The opposite of compromise is not idealism. The opposite of compromise is fanaticism and death.

I wrote The Same Sea not as a political allegory about Israelis and Palestinians. I wrote it about something much more gutsy and immediate. I wrote it as a piece of chamber music.

Now, Israel is a fulfillment, and as a fulfillment, it is flawed. The fact that it is flawed is not so much a testimony about the failures of Israel. No, it is a testimony about the nature of dreams.

With him everything is a test, affection is measured, that given weighed against that which has been received, and the balance, more often than not, disappointing him.

I often come across this question. "Which is the best camera in the world?". I would always say, "Well. You already own two of it, since your birth.

You know, my main goal in life is trying not to end up in a straightjacket.

You may be disappointed if you fail but you are doomed if you don't try.

I really believe you can predict when someone has a great attitude, a real well of talent.

Women are not apt to be won by the charms of verse.

Much later in life, though, Gracie made a major contribution to the opera world. She stayed out of it.

The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving.

Nothing cuts deeper than when another person says exactly what you're afraid to say out loud.

[My mom] had this amazing attitude in the face of everything, including when she got cancer.