Quote

Words create conceptions and self-conceptions and ultimately nations. They can start and stop wars. They can would and heal. Choosing words carefully is a moral responsibility.

Amos Oz

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Amos Oz
Age: 79 †
Born: 1939
Born: May 4
Died: 2018
Died: December 28
Author
Essayist
Journalist
Linguist
Novelist
Pedagogue
Poet
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Jerusalem
Middle East
Amos Klausner
Would
Stop
Conceptions
Responsibility
Choosing
Moral
Carefully
Nations
Conception
Start
Wars
Words
Heal
War
Ultimately
Self
Create

More quotes by Amos Oz

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I'm a great believer in compromises. I do not believe in capitulation.
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The [political] left are people with an imagination and the right are those without an imagination.
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The only way to keep a dream, any dream at all, to keep a dream perfect and rosy and intact and unsullied is never to live it out.
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Israel has obviously not liberated the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank. We have occupied them, but we have not liberated them.
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A long war is degenerating - it ruins the mind and the soul and psyche of individuals and nations.
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The very same book, even if it is translated very accurately, let's say from Hebrew into English or from English into Hebrew, becomes a different book because language is a musical instrument.
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Never cut loose from your longings.
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All my novels are rooted in their time and in their place. The place of my novels is Israel, almost without exception. Almost without exception, my novels are rooted in Israel because that's the place I know well. And, that's my gutsy advice to any young writer: write only about what you know well. Don't write about that which you don't know.
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It's possible a Palestinian state will be installed over the heads of the Palestinians. It could be part of an agreement between the Israeli government and moderate Arab states, but not one between Israel and the Palestinians.
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All my novels are rooted in their time and in their place.
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My musical instrument is Hebrew and, to me, this is the most important fact about my writing. I write in words. I don write in sounds or in shapes or in flavors. I write in words. And my words are Hebrew words.
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In fact, every one of us - every nation, every individual begins hundreds, perhaps thousands of years prior to the date that appears in the passport.
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Every language has influences and is an influence.
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Two children of same cruel parent look at one another and see in each other the image of the cruel parent or the image of their past oppressor. This is very much the case between Jew and Arab: It's a conflict between two victims.
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My musical instrument is Hebrew and, to me, this is the most important fact about my writing.
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The gift of literature is that, in some lucky cases, reading a novel or a story makes the reader more curious, more open-minded.
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On my parents scale of values, the more Western something was, the more cultured it was considered.
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I know that a translation of a work of literature is like playing a violin concerto on the piano. You can do this. You can do this very successfully on one strict condition: never try to force the piano to produce the sounds of the violin. This will be grotesque.
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I prefer to talk about the gift of literature rather than its role or task.
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I want Israel to live in peace with its neighbors and in peace with itself.
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