For seven years I wrote and published my texts on the Internet and no Arab festival invited me and no Arab publishing house wanted to publish my books, and I wasn't known in the Western world because of my political positions.

My stories were translated and had many reviews before I had an interview with any international or Arab newspaper. If the stories hadn't succeeded, you wouldn't have asked me my position on Arab festivals and I wouldn't have been interested in the festivals anyway, because I would be in seclusion, writing.

The Iran-Iraq war began the same year that I went to primary school, at the age of six.

The trail of "secret migration" was a shock to me. I knew a little about the difficulties, just bits of news in the media.

"Secret migration" across borders is a form of human degradation and evidence of the depravity of the human conscience.

One of the Baathists once told me, "If you're not careful, I'll have you put away," and those words meant death.

It's ridiculous and painful to use the Arabic of an Iraqi poet who lived centuries ago to describe what we in Iraq are suffering today.