I liked Sartre's views but not his writing.

I came to poetry through the urgent need to denounce injustice, exploitation, humiliation. I know that's not enough to change the world. But to remain silent would have been a kind of intolerable complicity.

I am a guest of the French language. My poems in French are born of my interaction with the French language, which is not the same as that of a French poet.

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'd thought sexuality was instinctive or natural, but it's profoundly linked to inner security and cultural context.

I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer.

I write about wounds, the eternal treasons of life. It's not very funny, but it's sincere. My commitment is to sincerity.