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.

I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter.

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.

Beauty is first and foremost an emotion.

The power of the word in Morocco belonged to men and to the authorities. No one asked the point of view of poor people or women.

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

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