At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me.

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.

According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment.

History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.

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.

The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level.