The Old Testament is full of poetry, prophecies, chronicles, documentations, storytelling, fairytales.

I would love to leave my children and grandchildren a nicer world than the one I am going to leave them. But bearing in mind that I was born in the world of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, the legacy I leave them might not be as terrible as the legacy my parents and grandparents left to me.

But for 30 years, Orthodox leaders have tipped the balance between hawks and doves, and have been in a position to determine who forms a coalition and who runs the country.

I prefer to talk about the gift of literature rather than its role or task.

I write in words. I don't write in sounds or in shapes or in flavors.

Literature exists inside the language. It's made of words.

I was born and bred in a tiny, low-ceilinged ground-floor apartment.