Amos Oz
Amos Oz
Amos Ozis an Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba. He is regarded as Israel's most famous living author...
NationalityIsraeli
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth4 May 1939
CountryIsrael
dream vision different
The whole Zionist project was based on a whole spectrum of different and even conflicting dreams and visions.
compromise
In my vocabulary, the word "compromise" is synonymous to the word "life".
integrity compromise idealism
The opposite of compromise is not integrity. The opposite of compromise is not idealism. The opposite of compromise is fanaticism and death.
parent scales western
On my parents scale of values, the more Western something was, the more cultured it was considered.
fanaticism
I know one or two things about fanaticism and death, and I reject them.
wall world graffiti
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.
cutting desire longing
Never cut loose from your longings.
running country years
But for 30 years, Orthodox leaders have tipped the balance between hawks and doves, and have been in a position to determine who forms a coalition and who runs the country.
curiosity realization apologizing
The alternative to fanaticism and to death is not some miraculous realization that someone has been wrong and he has to apologize. No, the answer to fanaticism and to death is curiosity and compromise and concession.
traitor ifs diets
If you change your diet, someone will call you a traitor.
cutting longing loses
Do not cut lose from your longings - for what are we without our longings?
dog cat imagination
Imagination needs food like every dog and every cat and every bird and every fish.
jesus mean enemy
When I say compromise I do not mean capitulation. When I say compromise I definitely do not mean what Jesus Christ meant when he offered us to turn our other cheek to our enemies. Compromise means, try to meet the other somewhere half-way. And, this can only happen if the other is willing to go half-way in order to meet you. That is the very strict line between compromise and capitulation.
sea political pieces
I wrote The Same Sea not as a political allegory about Israelis and Palestinians. I wrote it about something much more gutsy and immediate. I wrote it as a piece of chamber music.