I am a highly disciplined person. I get up at seven every morning and, still in my pajamas, sit down at my desk where my checkered ring binders and my fountain pen are ready for use. I try to write two pages every day.

I do not believe in a personal connection to God; that's where it gets transcendental.

I really don't want to portray the Islamists as simply evil, the way it's often done in the west.

Ka knew very well that life was a meaningless string of random incidents

My unhappiness protects me from life.

My hero wants to belong too, but he doesn't want to give up all the things he came to value in the west.

‎The past is always an invented land.