Rabbits are played. Nowadays it's all about the turtles. Tell them it's a ninja, they'll freak. Etgar Keret More Quotes by Etgar Keret More Quotes From Etgar Keret 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. Etgar Keret decision stories art I don't have Facebook or Twitter accounts yet. Being a compulsive storyteller, I always make up for myself discouraging stories about how such accounts will get me into embarrassing and time-consuming situations. Etgar Keret discouraging embarrassing stories I have to admit that talking authoritatively about my students' stories can make me feel, at times, like an astronaut who has just landed on a new planet and insists on giving guided tours to its inhabitants. Etgar Keret stories talking giving I rarely return to characters. My characters, at least most of them, are much more a part of that superorganism that is the story than separate and independent creatures. Etgar Keret independent stories character Making up characters and places and plots, unlike fixing your plumbing or doing dishes, is anything but practical or rational. I write what needs to be written the way that seems genuinely right. Etgar Keret plot writing character What you experience in the army, aged 18 to 21, is what you take through all your life. You cross invisible lines: you shoot someone, get shot, break into people's houses. It's naive to think you won't carry anything into your life. Etgar Keret army people thinking My first and biggest love was always fiction writing. But it is a very lonely pastime. Etgar Keret lonely writing fiction The amazing thing about an artistic collaboration is that it is as intense and intimate as a romantic one. Sometimes even more so. Etgar Keret artistic collaboration sometimes When you work on a graphic novel or a film with people you've been together through a lot and you've exposed your secrets and weaker sides to each other. Etgar Keret secret together people I remember a point in [writing] the story where I said, "This isn't working, I should go and buy something at the supermarket or my wife will kill me." Then I said, "No, I'll go on." Etgar Keret wife stories writing Often, the stories are very much like trust falls. You fall, and you hope the story's going to catch you. Etgar Keret stories fall I think tone gives birth to the story. Etgar Keret stories giving thinking I often give this metaphor where I say that writing short fiction is like surfing, while writing a novel is like navigating with your car. So when you navigate with your car, you want to get somewhere. When you surf, you don't want to get somewhere, you just don't want to fall off your board. Etgar Keret writing giving fall I usually start writing stories from tone and not from content - kind of like people who create music and invent the lyrics later on. Etgar Keret stories writing people I think that, in Hebrew, it's like the language creates a more unique and specific universe even before the story. Etgar Keret unique stories thinking People in Israel would write in a high register, they wouldn't write colloquial speech. I do a special take on colloquial speech. When I started writing, I thought [the language] was telling the story of this country: old people in a young nation, very religious, very conservative, very tight-assed, but also very anarchistic, very open-minded. It's all in the language, and that's one thing that doesn't translate. Etgar Keret religious writing country What happens when you speak colloquial Hebrew is you switch between registers all the time. So in a typical sentence, three words are biblical, one word is Russian, and one word is Yiddish. This kind of connection between very high language and very low language is very natural, people use it all the time. Etgar Keret typical biblical people You don't need to use the language of God to ask where the restrooms are. Etgar Keret language use needs Sometimes the stories are smarter than me, and suddenly these things start to make sense. Etgar Keret make-sense stories sometimes As the son of Holocaust survivors, this is life - you're put in a corner, and you have to get out. I believe that you can always get out. Etgar Keret holocaust believe son
