First Draft - Moshe Sakal

Where do you write?

As the cliche says, I write only at home, only in my private room, quietly.

When I was living in Jaffa, I went sometimes to Alwameda's Rock.

And also I tell this in the book.

I mean, there are legends connected to this place in Jaffa.

But here in Berlin, as an immigrant in my building with a lot of languages that I hear from the window, I just sit and I write.

I can also say that I write in Hebrew.

So that's also my home because all the languages that I hear from the windows are other languages.

So this is also where I write.

What do you do or where do you go to get away from writing?

So I go to the Zonenallee, to the Arabische Straße I was talking about, not only because I find these supermarkets and places where I hear the language, the tone, the music of my grandparents, but also it's really hard to explain this to European or maybe American people.

people.

What I find most exciting in the Middle East is the very unique combination of a hectic place with something really slow, really intimate, that has a certain philosophy of time, which is different.

So you can be in one place, you know, and let it be, you know, places that I've been to.

And I've been to, for example, to Jaffa, to Cairo, to Tangier, Marrakech and other places.

You have this very hectic life and everything is moving so fast.

But really, there's another time zone.

really happening at the same time, which is different.

And this is what I like.

And this is what makes me feel that I can be alive again and not being forced to write in order to feel alive.

Who do you show your work to first to get feedback?

As much as I write, because I started writing when I was 16 and a half, I show it less and less to people.

And I also gave workshops, which I titled, How to Write About Your Family and Stay Alive.

And my advice was show it to very few people and not to people that you feel that you need to show.

But there again, like I said, we're all right.