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.

An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers.

Writing is for men who can think and feel, not mindless sensation seekers out of nightclubs and bars. But these are bad times. We are condemned to work with upstarts, clowns who no doubt got their training in a circus and then turned to journalism as the appropriate place to display their tricks.

If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.

It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.

It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.

Madness is the acme of intelligence.