Don't Write About That Which You Don't

I Don't Think Israelis Are Less Critical Of Corruption Than People In Italy, France Or America. Israel Is Special In A Different Way. There Is A Daytime Israel And A Nighttime Israel. The First Is Self-confident, Pushy And Passionate, Like Other Mediterranean Lands. It Is Hedonistic, Materialistic And Almost Arrogant. During The Nighttime, People Are Terrified, People Are Filled With Existential Dreads. These Fears Aren't Baseless.

Literature Exists Inside The Language. It's Made Of Words. It's Not Made Of Ideas And It's Not Made Of Concepts, Of Psychological Analysis. It's Made Of Words. 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.

I Often Write About Reconciling. Reconciling, Or Maybe Half-reconciling Between Antagonists, Between People Who Are Deadly Enemies. I Write About Reconciliation, But Not As A Miracle, As A Slow, Gradual Process Of Mutual Discovery - Discovering One Another. I Write About Sad, Sober, Sometimes Heart-breaking Compromises.

Black Box Is Not A Statement About Injustice Committed Against Sephardi Oriental Jews Or About The Extremism Of Religious Jews Or The Lack Of Imagination Of The Old Israeli Elites. It's A Human Story, In My View, First And Foremost About A Mystical Communion Between Enemies. This Is The Inner Story Of The Novel. This Is My Business As A Novelist. It Is Not About Positions And Ideas.

The Only Way To Keep A Dream, Any Dream At All, To Keep A Dream Perfect And Rosy And Intact And Unsullied Is Never To Live It Out. The Moment You Carry Out Any Of Your Dreams Or Your Fantasies - Travel Around The World, Climbing A High Mountain, Buying A New House, Writing A Novel, Carrying Out A Sexual Fantasy, Traveling To An Unknown Country - The Moment You Carry Out Your Dreams, It's Always, By Definition Less Perfect And Rosy Than It Had Been As A Dream. This Is The Nature Of Dreams.