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

Emigration is no longer a solution; it's a defeat. People are risking death, drowning every day, but they're knocking on doors that are not open.

Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words.

To lead a country, you must periodically hold a national consultation in which people representing different programmes can make a bid for power.

A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely.

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

I have written about the dispossessed, immigrants, the condition of women who do not enjoy the same legal rights as men, the Palestinians who are deprived of their land and condemned to exile.