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.

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

The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.

As for life's tragedies, our love will defeat them. Love is the most effective cure. In the crevices of disasters, happiness lies like a diamond in a mind, so let us instill in ourselves the wisdom of love.

In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.

Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.

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