I'm not saying that I don't experience people in life as evil, but writing is not a place of alienation; writing is the place where we can try to be human.

What connects me so strongly to Israel is the fact that I'm second generation.

Most of the Jewish writer friends I have are American, and I feel closer to them because they're always obsessed with one issue - identity: what does it mean to be an American Jew?

The amazing thing about an artistic collaboration is that it is as intense and intimate as a romantic one. Sometimes even more so.

The best stories you usually hear are stories that people feel some type of urgency about.

Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good.

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.