"Death by love is fairer by far than death by illness", said Amenhotep III.

I was afraid of marriage. I had the impression married life would take up all my time. I saw myself drowning in visits and parties. No freedom.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.