We used the Western style to express our own themes and stories. But don't forget that our heritage includes The Thousand and One Nights.

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.

One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.

You know what I'm afraid of? That God is sick of us.

Without literature my life would be miserable.

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

I've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party.