Literature is not made of ideas and it's not made of concepts, of psychological analysis. It's made of words.

Almost without exception, my novels are rooted in Israel because that's the place I know well.

A long war is degenerating - it ruins the mind and the soul and psyche of individuals and nations.

Many intellectuals in America and in Europe, they are in the habit of taking sides: who are the bad guys? who are the good guys? They launch a demonstration against the bad guys, sign a petition in favor of the good guys, and going to sleep feeling well about themselves. This is not the case here. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tragedy; it is a clash between right and right.

I wrote a novel about Israelis who live their own lives on the slope of a volcano. Near a volcano one still falls in love, one still gets jealous, one still wants a promotion, one still gossips.

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.

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