If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.

A priest's life is spent between question and answer-- or between a question and the attempt to answer it. The question is the summary of the spiritual life.

I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.

I found myself in a sea in which the waves of joy and sorrow were clashing against each other.

I reject any path which rejects life, but I can't help loving Sufism because it sounds so beautiful. It gives relief in the midst of battle.

The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.

Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life.