Never Cut Loose From Your Longings.

Of Course, We Carry Inside Of Ourselves Our Parents. Even When They Are Dead, We Carry Them Inside Ourselves. And They Are Carrying Inside Themselves Their Dead Parents And So On And So Forth. There Is A Legacy Of Language And Culture And Religion. In Some Cases, Family Stories Told By Grandparents To Little Grandchildren. When I Say My Novels Are Set In Israel In The Last Seventy Years, This Entails The Fact That They Begin Hundreds Or Thousands Of Years Earlier In Time. Everybody Comes From Somewhere.

In The Same Way In Which Music Is Made Of Notes And A Painting Is Made Of Lines Of Colors, The Matter Of Literature Are Words.

Now, Israel Is A Fulfillment, And As A Fulfillment, It Is Flawed. The Fact That It Is Flawed Is Not So Much A Testimony About The Failures Of Israel. No, It Is A Testimony About The Nature Of Dreams.

Out There, In The World, All The Walls Were Covered With Graffiti: "yids, Go Back To Palestine," So We Came Back To Palestine, And Now The Worldatlarge Shouts At Us: "yids, Get Out Of Palestine."

Imagination Needs Food Like Every Dog And Every Cat And Every Bird And Every Fish.