Amos Oz Quotes

I'm so language-based and I'm so about communicating, and my art has always been very audience-based, and very about being functional and communicating something, and about feeling like I have to be heard.

When I need to take a side, I write a newspaper article and I tell my government, "You should not do that, you should do this." They don't listen to me, but I've been doing this for sixty years now. But, when I write a novel, I am not in that business.

Above and beyond drawing my creations, I try to incorporate some kind of message. I try not to end as merely a question but try to provide a conclusion within the work.

I don't make political work. I don't make work that criticises the state. I make as human work as I can.

The real political life in Russia unfortunately is not in the parliament but on the streets and in the media.

I view music as entertainment. When I'm on stage, I don't look at that as a platform for sharing ideology. Otherwise I'd be a zealot myself. That's why, when people ask me, 'Do you think you can change the world through your music?' I say, 'I doubt it.'

It's good that they've seen it, but how can I be satisfied after working for two years making a film which I hope will make a difference, when the government sees the film and does nothing about it?

The power and influence of public opinion has increased, and the driving force of the nosiest elements of public opinion tends in excited times to consist, not of majorities, but of minorities.

When I make a film, I'm not doing it purely for political reasons. If I just wanted to do that, I'd run for office.

It can't change anything immediately, but films can absolutely be catalysts for conversation.

When you change media, perception is changed and then policy is changed.

There's no unifying brand about me other than I'm a writer who shares my thoughts. Sometimes my thoughts are designed to help people, and other times, my thoughts are designed to change the political system and challenge those who need a good fight.

I have said it before and I will continue to say that I don't think art is the most effective form of protest. I don't think it changes policy; I think it changes discourse, and discourse can change ideas, and for me, that's what it's about: having that space for conversation.

I don't write to put it in a drawer, I hope that people see it.

The narrative songs were well-written, like an article in The New Yorker. They're nice and pat. They're more like I'm just showing I can do that when I write a song like that. It's not my true calling.

All along, my mantra was: Don't write unless it contributes to the emotion, and do anything you do in service of the emotion only.

Anyone can express himself or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate.

Write letters to your editors, write to your members of Congress, and write to your news stations.

I think the first duty of all art, including fiction of any kind, is to entertain. That is to say, to hold interest. No matter how worthy the message of something, if it's dull, you're just not communicating.

Writing is not chewing your nails and picking your teeth, but a matter of public interest.

Novels do take charge of the writer, and the writer is basically a kind of sheepdog just trying to keep things on track.

I think being an activist and an artist is an interesting contradiction, because so often they are at odds with one another. When you write as an artist you have to clean the palate of your own politics in creating characters and activism is kind of the exact opposite.

I think if you're going to make political art, you have to engage at some level. You can't just write about politics, you have to try and be politics as well.

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.

As far as bands doing that in a way where they think they're going to fight the government, the only people they're really hurting is the fans.