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Etgar Keret

Etgar Keret Quotes

Writer

Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer known for his unique humor and profound emotional depth. His works are typically short stories that explore themes of personal identity, family relationships, and social reality. Born on August 20, 1967, Keret's writing style has been well-received by readers worldwide, with his works translated into multiple languages.

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Famous Etgar Keret Quotes

“And we're moving from this world where where we know our story and we try to find glimpses of our stories in the world around us to a place where we don't know our story and we're just looking for a bunch of weird things.”

Stories Understanding Empathy Social Media Parallels Weirdness

Author:Etgar Keret

“When I ask him if he thinks there's a moral to his story, he says he's sure there must be, but doesn't know exactly what it is. "Maybe," he says after a short pause, "it's that this world is full of lizards, and even though there's nothing we can do about it, it is always helpful to find out how big they are.”

Stories Morals Precision Lizards

Book:The Seven Good Years

Source: The Seven Good Years

“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.”

People Should Writing Stories Feelings Felt Novel Agents Managers Short Story Publishers Writing Life Israeli Writing Short Writing Short Stories

Author:Etgar Keret

“For me taking a pragmatic decision when it comes to art is almost an oxymoron. The reason I first picked up a pen and wrote a story had nothing pragmatic in it.”

Firsts Art Reason Stories Decision Art Is Pens Pragmatic Oxymoron

Author:Etgar Keret

“I was born at six months, and I weighed 900 grams [less than two pounds]. I have a very heroic birth story.”

Two Stories Born Months Birth Six Pounds Heroic Six Months

Author:Etgar Keret

“In my stories I can kiss the girls I want to kiss and punch the girls I want to punch. Nobody pays a price for it.”

Want I Can Stories Girl Pay Kissing

Author:Etgar Keret

“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 Trying Stories America Passion Focus Written Concepts Crafts Introducing Hierarchy Good Story

Author:Etgar Keret

“The best stories you usually hear are stories that people feel some type of urgency about.”

People Feels Stories Type Urgency

Author:Etgar Keret

“It's funny, but I think my stories - the good ones - they're much smarter than I am.”

Thinking Stories Smarter

Author:Etgar Keret

“People in Israel would write in a high register, they wouldn't write colloquial speech. I do a special take on colloquial speech. When I started writing, I thought [the language] was telling the story of this country: old people in a young nation, very religious, very conservative, very tight-assed, but also very anarchistic, very open-minded. It's all in the language, and that's one thing that doesn't translate.”

People Writing Country Stories Young Language Nations Religious One Thing Special Speech Conservative Israel Translate Old People Open Minded Register

Author:Etgar Keret

“I think that, in Hebrew, it's like the language creates a more unique and specific universe even before the story.”

Thinking Stories Universe Language Unique Hebrew

Author:Etgar Keret

“I usually start writing stories from tone and not from content - kind of like people who create music and invent the lyrics later on.”

People Writing Kind Stories Tone Writing Stories

Author:Etgar Keret

“I think tone gives birth to the story.”

Thinking Giving Stories Birth Tone

Author:Etgar Keret

“Often, the stories are very much like trust falls. You fall, and you hope the story's going to catch you.”

Author:Etgar Keret

“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."”

Should Writing Said Stories Remember Wife Goes On My Wife Kill Me Supermarkets

Author:Etgar Keret

“Sometimes the stories are smarter than me, and suddenly these things start to make sense.”

Sometimes Stories Make Sense Smarter

Author:Etgar Keret

“I write what needs to be written the way that seems genuinely right. If what comes out of it are stories, then it is my vocation to believe in them and in the fact that they'll interest people and maybe affect their lives.”

People Ifs Way Needs Writing Believe Facts Stories Seems Interest Written Vocation

Author:Etgar Keret

“When I write, I never know the endings. What I think works in [my] stories is the fact that when I write, I really want to find out what is going on-I'm writing for myself as a reader. It's like when you dream a dream. I want to know what's behind the door. If I navigate, it's from a place that's totally intuitive.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Want Writing Facts Stories Dream Behinds Doors Reader Songwriting Intuitive Navigate

Author:Etgar Keret

“Before I started to make films, I didn't give much thought to the way the characters were physically positioned in the story world.”

World Way Giving Character Stories Film

Author:Etgar Keret

“I always have a story in my head that needs to be written, or at least I think I do. But I usually can't find the time to write it.”

Thinking Needs Writing Stories Written

Author:Etgar Keret

“My stories are very compact. I want them to say the most complex things in the simplest way.”

Way Want Stories Complexes Simplest Compact

Author:Etgar Keret

“When I started writing my stories, I thought that not only nobody outside my language, but nobody outside my neighbourhood would get them.”

Writing Stories Language Neighbourhoods

Author:Etgar Keret

“Writing a story is kind of like surfing, as opposed to the novel, where you use a GPS to get somewhere. With surfing, you kind of jump.”

Writing Kind Stories Use Novel Surfing Gps

Author:Etgar Keret

“I don't have Facebook or Twitter accounts yet. Being a compulsive storyteller, I always make up for myself discouraging stories about how such accounts will get me into embarrassing and time-consuming situations.”

Stories Situation Accounts Storyteller Embarrassing Consuming Discouraging Time Consuming

Author:Etgar Keret

“I have to admit that talking authoritatively about my students' stories can make me feel, at times, like an astronaut who has just landed on a new planet and insists on giving guided tours to its inhabitants.”

Giving Feels Stories Talking Students Planets Astronaut

Author:Etgar Keret

“I rarely return to characters. My characters, at least most of them, are much more a part of that superorganism that is the story than separate and independent creatures.”

Character Stories Return Creatures Independent

Author:Etgar Keret

“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.”

Ifs Feels Writing May Made Enough Stories Used Solutions Good Enough

Author:Etgar Keret

“It took a lot to understand that the interest in both writing a story and reading it is not in the objective dangers someone takes. You don't have to fight snakes or wake up in a strange apartment to have a story; it's about what goes on inside your mind and soul.”

Writing Mind Soul Stories Fighting Reading Interest Danger Strange Goes On Wake Up Objectives Apartment Snakes

Author:Etgar Keret

About the Author

Born: August 20, 1967
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 147

Related Topics

Writing People Stories Thinking Kind Way Ifs Want Feels Israel War Language Mean Facts Hebrew Knows Written Army Character Firsts

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Autocorrect: StoriesRelated source material

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