The calendar has a magic that makes us imagine a memory can be resurrected and revived, but nothing returns.

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.

I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.

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

If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.

The heart is a place of secrets.