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 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."
stories sometimes make-sense
Sometimes the stories are smarter than me, and suddenly these things start to make sense.
writing fiction moments
Writing is very castrating in the moment. Fiction in general, it has no function, nobody asks for it.
block thinking expression
I don't like the expression "writer's block" because I think it presupposes that you have a problem with your plumbing. I really think it's the other way around.
writing thinking should
I think when you write, you should call it a "writing spree." I don't write every day, and I don't write regularly.
writing incentives seeing
I never know the endings when I write. It's a turnoff when you know the ending. You lose much of your incentive to write when you already know. It's like seeing a movie a second time.
block reality thinking
I think living in Israel and wanting to change reality is the best prescription for never-ending writer's block.
frozen hebrew peas
Hebrew was frozen, like frozen peas, fresh out of the Bible.
ninja ifs translators
Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good.
turtles rabbits ninja
Rabbits are played. Nowadays it's all about the turtles. Tell them it's a ninja, they'll freak.
strong writing army
Generally, all my life, I have had strong friction with life - I was a problematic soldier, I was kicked out of the army, I was in fights. There was something about writing that was a way of experimenting with this emotion.
coffee missing-him men
And she loved a man who was made out of nothing. A few hours without him and right away she’d be missing him with her whole body, sitting in her office surrounded by polyethylene and concrete and thinking of him. And every time she’d boil water for coffee in her ground-floor office, she’d let the steam cover her face, imagining it was him stroking her cheeks, her eyelids and she’d wait for the day to be over, so she could go to her apartment building, climb the flight of stairs, turn the key in the door, and find him waiting for her, naked and still between the sheets of her empty bed.
sadness firsts want
If you want to learn how to be happy, you have to know what is sadness first.
writing stories may
I used to feel that if I say something's wrong, I have to say how it could be made right. But what I learned from Kurt Vonnegut was that I could write stories that say I may not have a solution, but this is wrong - that's good enough.