Etgar Keret
Etgar Keret
Etgar Keretis an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television...
NationalityIsraeli
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth20 August 1967
CountryIsrael
writing people stories
I usually start writing stories from tone and not from content - kind of like people who create music and invent the lyrics later on.
unique thinking stories
I think that, in Hebrew, it's like the language creates a more unique and specific universe even before the story.
reading cells talking
Most of them were murderers. But when I went there to talk, they were the nicest people. I did a reading. I said, "Thank you," and then they said to me, "Could you talk some more?" And I said, "Why?" and they answered, "Most of us are in solitary confinement, so the moment you finish talking, they take us back to our cells. We like hanging out here together."
jail speak ask-me
Apparently, I'm very, very popular in jails. They often ask me to come and speak.
two stories months
I was born at six months, and I weighed 900 grams [less than two pounds]. I have a very heroic birth story.
wife together process
Collaborating with your wife is amazing because you are doing something together with a person you truly love and know and discover things about her in that process which you have never had discovered on other circumstances.
collaboration artistic sometimes
The amazing thing about an artistic collaboration is that it is as intense and intimate as a romantic one. Sometimes even more so.
lonely writing fiction
My first and biggest love was always fiction writing. But it is a very lonely pastime.
writing people feelings
All my writing-life people kept telling me that I should stop writing short stories and start writing novels: my agent, my Israeli publisher, my foreign ones, my bank manager - they all felt and keep feeling that I'm doing something wrong here.
writing important clarity
Often in writing programs, articulation and clarity are more important than what you actually say.
mean names challenges
Etgar means "challenge." And my family name is Keret, which means "urban." So my name is "urban challenge." My joke is, it's a good description of a birth but a strange name for a human being.
writing passion america
In America, where writers are preoccupied with the craft of writing, I always try to introduce this concept of the badly written good story. Turning the hierarchy around and putting passion on top and not craft, because when you just focus on craft, you can write something that is very sterile.
writing law space
Nobody else in the world would look at writing as craftsmanship - it's totally this Protestant hardworking ethic. You go into this kind of infinite space of imagination and you fence yourself in with all kinds of laws.
writing wife stories
I remember a point in [writing] the story where I said, "This isn't working, I should go and buy something at the supermarket or my wife will kill me." Then I said, "No, I'll go on."