Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route.

You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.

I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.

In my world, history comes down to language and art.

I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.

As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.

Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival?