The Only Way To Keep A Dream,

Each Time I Have The Urge In Me To Make A Statement Or Send A Message Or To Issue A Manifesto, I Don't Bother To Write A Novel. I Write An Article And Publish It In A Popular Newspaper, Or I Make A Television Appearance.

Actually, Who Hasn't Been Through The Ghastly Experience Of Sitting In Front Of A Blank Page, With Its Toothless Mouth Grinning At You: Go Ahead, Let's See You Lay A Finger On Me? A Blank Page Is Actually A Whitewashed Wall With No Door And No Window. Beginning To Tell A Story Is Like Making A Pass At A Total Stranger In A Restaurant.

I'm A Great Believer In Compromises. I Do Not Believe In Capitulation.

Of Course, We Carry Inside Of Ourselves Our Parents. Even When They Are Dead, We Carry Them Inside Ourselves. And They Are Carrying Inside Themselves Their Dead Parents And So On And So Forth. There Is A Legacy Of Language And Culture And Religion. In Some Cases, Family Stories Told By Grandparents To Little Grandchildren. When I Say My Novels Are Set In Israel In The Last Seventy Years, This Entails The Fact That They Begin Hundreds Or Thousands Of Years Earlier In Time. Everybody Comes From Somewhere.

What Is Likely To Happen? Either An Escalation Of Violence Or An Entire Change In The Whole Middle East Theater. It May Well Happen, And I Say This To My Palestinian Friends, That The Palestinians Have In A Certain Way Missed Their Hour. They Had Their Moment When The World's Public Opinion Was Behind Them, And A Considerable Part Of The Israeli Public Was Willing To Compromise With Them.