Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

In the Arab world, there is no link between the cultural habits of peoples and the ways of thinking and creating of modern intellectuals. They are two separate worlds.

I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter.

I am glad to have found a readership, but one can’t write only what is likely to sell. A writer is not a shopkeeper. A writer creates an imaginary world that he transmits to others.

I liked Sartre's views but not his writing.

It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn.

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.