Etgar Keret Thinking Quotations

I always have a story in my head that needs to be written, or at least I think I do. But I usually can't find the time to write it.

What you experience in the army, aged 18 to 21, is what you take through all your life. You cross invisible lines: you shoot someone, get shot, break into people's houses. It's naive to think you won't carry anything into your life.

It's kind of a reflex for me to ignore my own wishes and think about other people first.

I think there are some artists whose works are misanthropic.

I think that becoming a parent kind of made me try to be more responsible. And it made me much more stressful.

The moment that you have a child - that you know that when he'll turn 18, he'll join the Army and go there for three years of compulsory service - then you can't help yourself of thinking about the future - speculating about it, dreading it or even being - trying to be more active to change it and improve it.

When I write, I never know the endings. What I think works in [my] stories is the fact that when I write, I really want to find out what is going on-I'm writing for myself as a reader. It's like when you dream a dream. I want to know what's behind the door. If I navigate, it's from a place that's totally intuitive.

I think that before my son was born, I didn't have a strong sensation for future. I was living in this kind of never-ending present.

It's funny, but I think my stories - the good ones - they're much smarter than I am.

I think when you write, you should call it a "writing spree." I don't write every day, and I don't write regularly.

I don't like the expression "writer's block" because I think it presupposes that you have a problem with your plumbing. I really think it's the other way around.

I think that, in Israel, the greatest fear that people have, and I have it, too, is fear of genocide.

I think tone gives birth to the story.

I think that, in Hebrew, it's like the language creates a more unique and specific universe even before the story.

I think living in Israel and wanting to change reality is the best prescription for never-ending writer's block.

I think that any authentic feeling one has of life should be a feeling of defeat. It's a losing game. You're going to die. Civilization is going to end. Our society is in decline, and we should feel OK about it because Roman society was in decline and before it the Assyrian one was, and they disappeared off this earth and we will disappear too.