“The truth is, I never travel without cash. I always take a few tens with me in case of an emergency. There's never been an emergency, and in time, I realized that Americans don't want to touch customers' dirty bills. They also don't want to touch your credit card: you have to put it through the machine yourself, with your own fingers.”

Palestinian Israeli author and journalist

Sayed Kashua is a Palestinian citizen of Israel and an author and journalist born in Tira, Israel. He is known for his books and for his humorous columns in Hebrew and English. Kashua writes across fiction and journalism, and his work has been noted for moving between languages and audiences. His columns, in particular, are associated with wit and social observation, reflecting the bilingual setting in which he writes.