Beauty Is First And Foremost An Emotion.

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.

An Individual Voice Can Be Heard In A Choir That Otherwise Sings In Unison. This Is Something That Is Not Excused.

To Lead A Country, You Must Periodically Hold A National Consultation In Which People Representing Different Programmes Can Make A Bid For Power.

We Do Not Have Many Intellectuals Who Can Speak Out For Us Internationally. We Have No Writers Who Are Recognized, Respected And Loved Outside The Arab World.

In The 70s I Was In Exile; Every Time I Went Back I Wondered If They'd Take My Passport Away.