Yet Another Interview in Which an Author Compares Writing/Literature to Religion

Interviewer: You don’t use the computer?

Appelfeld: No, I like the paper. Writing, like every art, is a sensual art. You have to touch it, you have to feel it, to correct, again to correct, always to correct.

Interviewer: You work everyday?

Appelfeld: Every day, yes, except Saturday.

Interviewer: Do you go to synagogue?

Appelfeld: Not often, no. When the children were small I used to go, because they liked the synagogue. I like to sit at home on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and read the prayer book and the mahzor of Yom Kippur.

Interviewer: You are religious?

Appelfeld: Not religious–I am not a member of a community or a synagogue. Really, my devotion to writing is my religion. There are other aspects of my religion, but mainly it is to be with myself, for many hours.

–From Alain Elkann’s interview of Aharon Appelfeld in the Paris Review (issue 210)