I need to have one foot inside and one foot outside a culture to be able to write about it. For example, I couldn't write about the gay culture if I ….

I wonder whether there is such a thing as a sense of individuality. Is it all a facade, covering a deep need to belong? Are we simply pack animals de….

How can I expect readers to know who I am if I do not tell them about my family, my friends, the relationships in my life? Who am I if not where I fi….

I love a lot of American writers, but I think that for the most part the scope of what's accepted as great American writing is very limited. What we ….

By nature, a storyteller is a plagiarist. Everything one comes across - each incident, book, novel, life episode, story, person, news clip - is a cof….

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who want to be desired, and people who want to be desired so much that they pretend they don't..

Sex, like art, can unsettle a soul, can grind a heart in a mortar. Sex, like literature, can sneak the other within one's wall, even if only for a mo….

By remaining constrained in one's environment or country or family, one has little chance of being other than the original prescription. By leaving, ….

I wonder if being sane means disregarding the chaos that is life, pretending only an infinitesimal segment of it is reality..

Is life less thrilling if your neighbors are rational, if they don’t bomb your power stations whenever they feel you need to be admonished? Is it les….

I long ago abandoned myself to a blind lust for the written word. Literature is my sandbox. In it I play, build my forts and castles, spend glorious ….

The whole world is going insane right now. We, too, have our own problems. The president of Lebanon is an arch-menace. But I think, as horrid as he i….

I believe one has to escape oneself to discover oneself..

I'm an atheist, a devout atheist, but I find religion fascinating. Primarily because of cultural references, as in: This is what we grew up with. Bot….

When I'm writing I don't feel any pressure. It's after I'm done that I start freaking out. But really, when I'm in Lebanon, I don't write much becaus….

When I published my first work, I thought I would never be able to go back to Lebanon. I thought they'd arrest me at the airport. I thought I would c….

The eye always fills in the imperfections..

Me? I was lost for long time. I didn’t make any friends for few years. You can say I made friends with two trees, two big trees in the middle of the ….

I'm surprised how often I'm asked about being a man with a woman narrator. I'm not the first, nor will I be the last. It's been done forever, but we ….

What is the purpose of a city if not to grant the greatest of gifts, anonymity?.

I think in Arabic at times, but when I'm writing it's all in English. And I don't try to make my English sound more Arabic, because it would be phony….