My countrymen have the right to shake my hand and talk to me if they so wish. Don't forget that their support and their reading of my works is what brought me the Nobel prize.

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

Happy is he who can give himself up.

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

God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.

My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.

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.