Quotes

Israelis are the total Jews.

It's not what the rabbis say that defines Jewishness but what we Israelis do every day - our actions and our values.

The malady of the Jews is that they don't see territory as part of their identity.

I was proud my father spoke Arabic fluently - his father sent him to learn Arabic from a sheikh - and we had Arab friends. His task of understanding the Arabs - not only politics but poetry - was very important; he took it as a vocation.

We're living with the Arabs; we have to understand them... Through knowing the Arabs, you know yourself better.

I come from two parts of the oriental community - Jerusalemite and North African Jews.

Jerusalem doesn't belong only to Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews, but to the world.

I admit I think it is immoral for Jews to live in the Diaspora.

We have to rethink the two-state solution.

In my own view, Hamas's frustration derives from a lack of legitimization by Israel and by much of the world. It is this frustration that leads them to such destructive desperation. That's why we need to grant them status as a legitimate enemy - before we talk about an agreement or, alternatively, about a frontal war.

Let us not forget: The Palestinians in Gaza are our permanent neighbors, and we are theirs.

Our synagogues are spread all over the world, and we want people to respect them and look after them. And we have to respect the places of prayer of others.

In a time of crisis, there is rational tendency to turn to the writer.

For 50 years - that is, for most of my adult life - I worked tirelessly for the two-state solution in the face of countless frustrations, both on the part of the Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority.

In my DNA, the Zionist gene is extremely strong.

I think about the Arabs not as enemies but as cousins. Even when we are in a fierce conflict with them, they are more of a kind of family - with all the problems of a family. We have to live with them.

World War II was a trauma that paralysed writers. It was something metaphysical, diabolical.

Israel is too attached to America, too influenced by America. It should be connected to Europe. America is based on mythology - the free man, the individual, the open frontier. Europe is more conscious of history. Take Britain and Shakespeare. You shape your identity through history.

In India, nobody really talks about works of art; they always talk about the appreciation of art. You buy this for 3,000 rupees, it'll become 30,000 in two months.

I think artists are really the root of a tree. They can search for truth or reality in their own way, and the gallery can support them - the outside part of the tree, where it is more about reaching the outside world, connecting with the outside world. That is the role of the gallery, no? Why does the artist have to do that?

I remember, in my first show in New York, they asked, 'Where is the Indian-ness in your work?'... Now, the same people, after having watched the body of my work, say, 'There is too much Indian philosophy in your work.' They're looking for a superficial skin-level Indian-ness, which I'm not about.

My work is not directly about the social or political.

I enjoy doing my work, and I don't want to deal with the other things. When you enjoy doing your work so much, why deal with where to show, how to show, what to do? If the artist finds the right gallery which respects their work and gives them that freedom to do whatever they want to do, the artist can focus on his work.

A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching.

Teaching is an instinctual art, mindful of potential, craving of realizations, a pausing, seamless process.