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

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

My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own.

I do not use the language of my people. I can take liberties with certain themes which the Arabic language would not allow me to take.

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.

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

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.