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Hebrew has a system of tenses, which is, in a big way, different from the English system of tenses, probably different than any European system of tenses, which means a different sense of reality, which means a different concept of time.

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
Time
Probably
Bigs
Tenses
Means
Hebrew
Sense
European
Reality
Concept
Mean
English
Different
Concepts
Way
System

More quotes by Amos Oz

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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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It is crystal clear to me that if Arabs put down a draft resolution blaming Israel for the recent earthquake in Iran it would probably have a majority, the U.S. would veto it and Britain and France would abstain.
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Almost without exception, my novels are rooted in Israel because that's the place I know well.
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I write in words. I don't write in sounds or in shapes or in flavors.
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I write in words. And my words are Hebrew words.
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I'm a great believer in compromise. I know it's not popular among young idealists.
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I don't write novels about expeditions to the planet Mars because I haven't been there and I don't know anything about it.
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I write about reconciliation, but not as a miracle, as a slow, gradual process of mutual discovery - discovering one another.
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If people are pro-Israel, they are pro-Israel one-hundred-and-twenty percent. If they are anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian, they tend to be pro-Palestinian one-hundred-and-twenty percent. I don't think a decent person has to choose between being pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. I think you have to be pro-Peace.
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I don't think a novel's main donation, main gift, is the document. The document is there, but a novel goes beyond documentation. It goes into opening a new vista, opening a new perspective, showing familiar things in an unfamiliar way, and making the reader reconsider the documentary facts which he or she may have known before.
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Compromise is not popular. It's not at all popular among young people who these days call themselves activists. They think compromises are dishonest, opportunistic, humiliating. Not in my vocabulary.
Amos Oz
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I often write about reconciling. Reconciling, or maybe half-reconciling between antagonists, between people who are deadly enemies.
Amos Oz
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You know, gynecology has a role sex is a gift. And literature is not about sending messages.
Amos Oz
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tragedy it is a clash between right and right. And, therefore it's not black and white. Sometimes, recently it is indeed a clash between wrong and wrong. It is not as simple as fascism was.
Amos Oz
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I am an old man and I have seen things get revoked. Things which looked very irrevocable.
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My dream for Israel is peace, external and internal peace.
Amos Oz
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The Old Testament is full of poetry, prophecies, chronicles, documentations, storytelling, fairytales.
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Dreams fulfilled are imperfect.
Amos Oz
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Don't write about that which you don't know.
Amos Oz
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I'm not sure I'm happy with words such as task or role when they are attached to literature. I prefer to talk about the gift of literature rather than its role or task. You know, gynecology has a role sex is a gift. And literature is not about sending messages.
Amos Oz