As soon as you have a problem, it's insoluble. These things should never have been allowed to happen.

I escaped the [Southern-writer] label because I didn't and don't write about the South.

If you are asking me what the individual can do right now, in a political sense, I'd have to say he can't do all that much. Speaking for myself, I am more concerned with the transformation of the individual, which to me is much more important than the so-called political revolution.

Every word is autobiographical, and every word is fiction.

I don't know what falling in love for me is. The concept of romantic love arose in the Middle Ages. Now remember, the Arabs don't even have a word for love-that is, a word for love apart from physical attraction or sex. And this separation of love and sex is a western concept, a Christian concept. As to what falling in love means, I'm uncertain. Love, well, it means simply physical attraction and liking a person at the same time.

No one is ever really alone. You are part of everything alive.

The word is now a virus.