Intellectuals try to keep going. But their situation is very difficult. Those who have had the courage to voice their opposition have often paid a very high price.

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

We have no Arab intellectuals of international stature because we live in a state of generalized mediocrity. We are suspended in the pit without touching the bottom.

My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible.

Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl.

What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre.

An individual voice can be heard in a choir that otherwise sings in unison. This is something that is not excused.