My hope is that countries like Morocco will have investment to create work, so people don't have to leave.

Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is.

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

For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history.

We do not have many intellectuals who can speak out for us internationally. We have no writers who are recognized, respected and loved outside the Arab world.

We must stop posing as victims of the West and behaving negatively towards the West. We must participate with the West on an equal footing in the reconstruction of the world.

We must have our say, not through violence, aggression or fear. We must speak out calmly and forcefully. We shall only be able to enter the new world era if we agree to engage in dialogue with the other side.