Sadat made us feel more secure.

Every inch a person’s body travels on the road of separation seems like miles to the heart.

I defend both the freedom of expression and society’s right to counter it. I must pay the price for differing. It is the natural way of things.

How could the prisoner break his chains? I pictured a world, a righteous world, with no sin, no bonds, no social obligations; a world throbbing with creativity, innovation, and thought, nothing else; a world of dedicated solitude, without father, mother, wife, or child; a world where a man could travel lightly, immersed in art alone.

Beauty itself is a painful convulsion in the heart, an abundance of vitality in the soul, and a mad chase undertaken by the spirit until it encounters the heavens.

I reject any path which rejects life, but I can’t help loving Sufism because it sounds so beautiful. It gives relief in the midst of battle.

No blasphemy harms Islam and Muslims so much as the call for murdering a writer.

When we’re in love, we may resent it, but we certainly miss love once it’s gone.

An anxious heart is like a string that’s out of tune.

We used the Western style to express our own themes and stories. But don’t forget that our heritage includes The Thousand and One Nights.