Amos Oz Literature Quotations

Literature exists inside the language. It's made of words.

Literature is not made of ideas and it's not made of concepts, of psychological analysis. It's made of words.

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.

In the same way in which music is made of notes and a painting is made of lines of colors, the matter of literature are words.

Literature belongs first and foremost to the language in which it is being written.

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.

Literature is about telling stories.

The gift of literature is that, in some lucky cases, reading a novel or a story makes the reader more curious, more open-minded.

Literature may open a third eye in the middle of the reader's forehead.

Literature may make the reader reexamine some of his or her own conventions, look at himself or herself in a different way, look at others in a different way. This goes way beyond just making statements or manifesting principles.

I'm not sure I'm happy with words such as "task" or "role" when they are attached to literature.