My stories are very compact. I want them to say the most complex things in the simplest way.
When I started writing my stories, I thought that not only nobody outside my language, but nobody outside my neighbourhood would get them.
I used to feel that if I say something's wrong, I have to say how it could be made right. But what I learned from Kurt Vonnegut was that I could write stories that say I may not have a solution, but this is wrong - that's good enough.
I don't have Facebook or Twitter accounts yet. Being a compulsive storyteller, I always make up for myself discouraging stories about how such accounts will get me into embarrassing and time-consuming situations.
I have to admit that talking authoritatively about my students' stories can make me feel, at times, like an astronaut who has just landed on a new planet and insists on giving guided tours to its inhabitants.
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.
Sometimes the stories are smarter than me, and suddenly these things start to make sense.
The best stories you usually hear are stories that people feel some type of urgency about.
For me taking a pragmatic decision when it comes to art is almost an oxymoron. The reason I first picked up a pen and wrote a story had nothing pragmatic in it.
I remember a point in [writing] the story where I said, "This isn't working, I should go and buy something at the supermarket or my wife will kill me." Then I said, "No, I'll go on."
Often, the stories are very much like trust falls. You fall, and you hope the story's going to catch you.
I think that, in Hebrew, it's like the language creates a more unique and specific universe even before the story.
I usually start writing stories from tone and not from content - kind of like people who create music and invent the lyrics later on.
It's funny, but I think my stories - the good ones - they're much smarter than I am.
I was born at six months, and I weighed 900 grams [less than two pounds]. I have a very heroic birth story.