... For me it is essential, essential for the poet to have a new toast, new songs.

On this earth there is that which deserves life.

The stars had only one task: they taught me how to read. They taught me I had a language in heaven and another language on earth.

I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews.

I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood So that I could break the rule I learnt all the words and broke them up To make a single word: Homeland.

We suffer from an incurable malady: Hope.

For the Arabs in Israel there is always a tension between nationality and identity.