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 are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems.

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

Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life.

Literature should be more revolutionary than revolutions themselves; writers must find the means to continue to be critical of the negative elements in the sociopolitical reality.

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

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.