Zeruya Shalev Quotes

Living in Jerusalem and writing in Jerusalem is always a struggle, because the tension is huge, sometimes is even tragic. On one hand, is really disturbing, but, on the other hand, is a huge inspiration.

It seems that wherever you go, your country follows you like a shadow.

When two people meant for each other refuse to accept their vocation, they sentence themselves to a life full of hatred and blame and everyone is to blame for their missed opportunity.

Normally the characters I create are busy in some sort of crisis and, as a literary therapist, it is my job to help them overcome it.

Writing is all about discovery. It is my own journey into the unknown, no less than my characters' journey. Knowing and creating are almost opposite for me. In order to create, I must leave ample space for the unknown. It turns the writing process into an adventure.

Encounters with pain and sorrow made me want to write. When I was 6, I was already writing sad poems about cats and dogs that had been killed and soldiers that were dying in war. It’s in my DNA.

Creating new from old is to a large extent the story of our lives. We are born anew into an "old" narrative, as humans and as writers.

"you know how difficult it is to realize that some pains can’t be cured by love?”

The job of literature is to change the reader’s soul. I don’t want my readers just to enjoy themselves. I want them to go through some sort of experience that might change themselves.

You can feel the extremeness of Israeli society and life in my books without it being explicit. I only look for the individual experienced and give a taste of the complexity of life in Israel.

I've gotten used to so many symbolic interpretations of my work. Every fighting couple becomes a manifestation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

(Do you consider yourself a religious person?) No, not at all. I see the Bible as a source of inspiration, for me it’s literature.