Every language has influences and is an influence.

Well, my definition of a tragedy is a clash between right and right.

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

You know, gynecology has a role; sex is a gift. And literature is not about sending messages.

Sometimes, recently Israeli-Palestinian conflict is indeed a clash between wrong and wrong. It is not as simple as fascism was. Every decent man had to be against fascism, period. It is not as simple as apartheid or colonialism or racism or misogyny. It is not simple because the Palestinians have no other land. They are absolutely right about this. The Israeli Jews also have no other land and they are absolutely right about this. It is a tragedy of two peoples claiming the same very small country, about the size of New Jersey.

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