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

There is an important erotic element in A Thousand and One Nights, which is one of the keys to understanding the Orient.

It is impossible to disregard such an important medium as television. We should know how to use it, learn to work in it and express new values in it.

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

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.

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

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.