The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.
History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.
The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.
Without literature my life would be miserable.
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.
We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems.
I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.
I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.
My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.
I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.
One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.
I accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in peace.
Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.
It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.
The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level.
