Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I always envied them, the owners of the cars with the white plates who can be seen around Jerusalem. I always wanted to be one of them. We call them U.N., even though U.N. are generally foreign correspondents with leased cars and yellow plates. "

Related Quotes:

" Maybe I would go back to West Jerusalem without too much bother if I could lie to my kids and tell them they are equal citizens in a democratic state. "

Sayed Kashua

Tell

Too Much

Without

" A trip to Tel Aviv is a ritual. I always wear the same clothes to Tel Aviv: black pants and a blue-checked shirt that I bought especially from Ralph Lauren. "

" Since being on television, I have felt that my brain is degenerating. "

" A lot of my friends in my student days complained about how their parents made them play an instrument when they were kids. I always felt compassion for them and didn't believe a parent could be so cruel, but when I check today, those complaining friends grew up to be quite successful, and many of them are now making their children play. "

" There's a lot of hypocrisy and condescension in Israel's institutionalized support for Mubarak's tyrannical rule, in its backing of a corrupt leader who established a brutal secret police state to suppress his citizens and keep their mouths shut. "

" When was the last time an Arab MK who appeared on television wasn't there in the role of the accused who is attacked by a skeptical broadcaster? "

" Many Israelis are educating their kids in a very nationalist, powerful identity, since kindergarten - and the Arabs as well. "

" I can never get to sleep without a book. "

" It always seems to me that my life would look completely different if I didn't have to take care of the rent. "

" It sometimes seems that the only plan the Israeli government has for the Palestinians is for them to sit quietly while Israel does whatever takes its fancy, equipped with its army, with laws it promulgated, and with courts it established. "

" Sometimes I think that if we have to go back, then it certainly won't be to Jerusalem. Not to the Jerusalem beset with racism that we left at the height of the last Gaza war. "

Sayed Kashua

War

Back

" I don't really wake up in the morning and say, 'Ohmigod, I'm a Palestinian in a Jewish state.' I wake up in the morning and say, 'Ohmigod, I have to make sandwiches for my kids.' "

" All in all, we Muslims have only two holidays, and they're always getting moved around from season to season, from month to month, because we're dependent on the moon and not the sun, and unlike the Jews, we haven't created a leap year, so we have no Adar Bet. "

" Somehow it seems that all parents are certain that they themselves were victims of abuse in school and that they will not allow this to happen to their children. Even though children can also be the cruelest group imaginable - especially the cutest of them. "

" It's problematic being an Arab who writes in Hebrew. "

" Americans like to add the word 'super' when they're describing things. "

Sayed Kashua

Word

Super

" They're completely American. When I served my son falafel in a pita the other day, he said, 'Daddy, this taco is very good.' "

" What kind of people will these ghettos of Palestinians produce? What form of morality, national consciousness and hope will people be left with after so many years of stifling occupation and a sense of hopelessness? "

" I once wrote that the first week in Jerusalem was the hardest week of my life. I was different, other; my clothes were different, as was my language. All of the classes were in Hebrew - science, bible, literature. I sat there not understanding one word. When I tried to speak, everyone would laugh at me. "

Sayed Kashua

My Life

Laugh

" People who go far don't sleep an average of 14 hours a day. "

" I hate flying. The first time I flew with my wife, Najat, was the first time I'd ever flown in my life, and that was just a short flight to Turkey. I spent the whole time with my shirt pulled over my head. Then I got used to it. "

" When there's a revolution in Egypt, you can't really get depressed about not knowing what happens after you die. When there are millions out on the streets, that's not the time to start panicking about contracting swine flu. "

" As I see it, religion shouldn't interfere in a relationship. "

" The smell of onion is the most effective thing for relieving stinging eyes irritated by tear gas. "

" Everything in London is quite good, apart from the weather: it's cold and rainy there, and the winter is long. "

" Israel defines Palestinians more than anything else. "

" I'm always sad when Dad doesn't like my columns. He waits for them every week and usually likes them, in which case he doesn't say a word - it's only if he's critical that he bothers to call. "

Sayed Kashua

Always

Only

" Back in Israel, I would spend much effort and plenty of money on presents when I went abroad, even if it was only for two days. "

" Sometimes it seems that what really worries the Israeli governments, even more than the Muslim Brotherhood, is the real Egypt. "

" I tell you a joke to have you listen to me, and then maybe I will tell you another joke that we can laugh together and feel equal. And then I will tell you a story hopefully that will make you cry. So I think that's the way that I approach the columns, as a surviving tool in a way. "

Sayed Kashua

You

Think