An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally.
Africans need to be kicked, that's the only thing they understand.
I became very interested in the Islamic question, and thought I would try to understand it from the roots, ask very simple questions and somehow make a narrative of that discovery.
The past has to be seen to be dead; or the past will kill.
Great writing can be done in biography, history, art.
It is important not to trust people too much.