Amir Or discusses what Jackson describes as "the force and power of language," particularly in the context of poetry in translation. Or says,

"Language functions as a filter through which we understand . . . [and] experience reality." "Even the most minor poet is quite subversive, in the sense that he creates a new reality, a new tomorrow, a new way of looking at things." "We don't have . . . witch doctors or prophets, but poetry, in a way, takes this role because often, when you write, there is a bigger self, a bigger you that . . . has some message to convey, and this message is not just facts. It goes deeper--into the music, into the psyche, into the emotions of the people who are there to receive it, if it truly works."

"If you speak in more than one language, or if you write in more than one language, . . . immediately this idea that language shapes reality becomes real to you. . . . [and you experience] areas of language that you didn't know you could feel--that exist in another language." "Any art is a dialogue, and when you can bridge something through language, the reader in another language--via translation--will respond to it with his own reality . . . and will enrich the poem--because the poem is not something that is static; it is something that will happen between the reader and the poem and is different each time." "The challenge that the poet has is not how difficult he makes [the poem] for the reader or how perfect his poetry should be, in the sense of his individual voice, but how little he compromises for communication and still keeps his own unique voice."

"Communication is essential. If you do art for art's sake, this is not art, really, this is a diary, . . . art for self-satisfaction, not for dialogue."

"Whatever is lost in translation, you cannot figure it out. Words in Hebrew can have [several] meanings while English slices the language very thin." "The logic of Hebrew is the logic of symbol and metaphor." "[To write in or translate into English,] I have to compromise or be creative, and sometimes, when the translator has poetic capabilities, he does very well. It's not the same poem [as the original], but it is something else that is quite fair."