I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.

I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry, but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you, come and sit, relax and enjoy yourself for a while.

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.

The heart is a place of secrets.

I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning.

I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way.

Nothing records the effects of a sad life so graphically as the human body.