Aharon Appelfeld Quotations

The writer in western civilization has become not a voice of his tribe, but of his individuality. This is a very narrow-minded situation.

I see myself as a man who is searching for meaning in life. This is rather different from being a staunch believer in something. A believer is someone who senses a consciousness or a direction and believes in it. The one who searches for meaning has not found the direction yet.

Can art be completely invented? It's a matter of shaping reality with the help of imagination.

A story is not only meaning, it's music as well.

My nights are a nightmare, quite often, but the nightmares are rich. I nourish myself by those nights.

I had a feeling that my generation-and me, also-we were naked. We did not belong to anything.

A person has to be by himself a little bit. We weren’t born in a flock. Togetherness drives me out of my mind.

I am not writing in metaphors. I am writing about catastrophes.

The Holocaust is a central event in many people's lives, but it also has become a metaphor for our century. There cannot be an end to speaking and writing about it. Besides, in Israel, everyone carries a biography deep inside him.

People who lose their parents when young are permanently in love with them.