Being ambivalent doesn't mean that you're a relevatist, that anything goes; it just means that you show the complexity of life. Life is always complex. Etgar Keret More Quotes by Etgar Keret More Quotes From Etgar Keret To what extent does anybody control his destiny? Life is very much like falling of the edge of a cliff. You have complete freedom to make all the choices you want to take on your way down. My characters choose to yearn and not lose hope even when the odds are completely against them. It doesn't make the landing at the end of that fall any less painful but, somehow, it helps them keep a little dignity their bone broken body. Etgar Keret destinycharacterfall Even as a very young man, I knew that my family is like a plant. Uproot it, and it will wilt. Pluck away at it, and it will die. But leave it to thrive in the soil, untouched, and it will weather both gods and winds. It is born with the soil, and it will live so long as the soil shall live. Etgar Keret weatherwindmen Sometimes, when you are in a really constrained situation, it makes you more focused about what you want to say and where you're heading. The most beautiful love poems that were ever written are sonnets, composed in a very constraining form. Etgar Keret wantbeautifulsometimes As a monogamous creature, I feel sometimes that it fills up a function that affairs have in married people's life. Etgar Keret marriedsometimespeople He felt full of a dense and sour substance that was blocking his chest, and it wasn't grief. After all those years, life now seemed like no more than a trap, a maze, not even a maze, just a room that was all walls, no door. Etgar Keret wallblockgrief You'll never know what's happening inside the heads of other people. Etgar Keret happeningsknowspeople In the army you feel violated - there's no private space. Writing was a life-saver, a way of recovering private territory. Etgar Keret armyspacewriting Writing is a way of living other lives. It is a way of expanding your life. It's not actually living a different life, it just means that you're hungry for life. There are so many things you want to do. Etgar Keret writingmeanway I tried once in my life to write a novel. I had written something like 80 pages of it when my laptop got stolen. When I told people this, they acted as if something tragic had happened, but I kind of felt relieved, grateful to the thief who saved me from another year of something that felt more like homework than fun. Etgar Keret gratefulwritingfun I see creative-writing classes as some sort of AA meeting. It is more of a support group for people who write than an actual course in which you learn writing skills. This support group is extremely important because there is something very lonely about writing. Etgar Keret lonelywritingclass I always have a story in my head that needs to be written, or at least I think I do. But I usually can't find the time to write it. Etgar Keret writingneedsthinking I was first introduced to Kafka's writing during my compulsory army-service basic training. During that period, Kafka's fiction felt hyperrealistic. Etgar Keret trainingarmywriting During the war, there were people wishing me death, wishing my son death, wishing my wife death in very graphic ways. In the past, I would go overseas and I would say, "Israel is like my family: we disagree, but we're all brothers." I can't say that anymore, because life proves me wrong. Etgar Keret brotherwarson In Israel, the role of the writer is dictated by the language in which you write. Writers see themselves as cultural prophets. Etgar Keret rolesisraelwriting There were lots of lies along the way in life. Lies without arms, lies that were ill, lies that did harm, lies that could kill. Lies on foot, or behind the wheel, black-tie lies, and lies that could steal. Etgar Keret way-in-lifefeetlying The reason I write is that I'm not in dialogue with my emotions; writing puts me in touch with myself. Etgar Keret emotionreasonwriting All my writing-life people kept telling me that I should stop writing short stories and start writing novels: my agent, my Israeli publisher, my foreign ones, my bank manager - they all felt and keep feeling that I'm doing something wrong here. Etgar Keret feelingswritingpeople When I say a spoken Hebrew sentence, half of it is like the King James Bible and half of it is a hip-hop lyric. It has a roller-coaster effect. Etgar Keret hipship-hopkings My mother, for example, told the German officer not to kill her. She'd make it worth his while. And then, when they were doing it, she pulled a knife out of her belt and sliced open his chest, just like she used to open chicken breasts to stuff with rice for the Sabbath meal. Etgar Keret knivesexamplemother The one who swallows cactuses with spines should not complain about hemorrhoids. Etgar Keret hemorrhoidsshouldcomplaining
