I've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party.

• At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.
• We are like a woman with a difficult pregnancy. We have to rebuild the social classes in Egypt, and we must change the way things were.
• As the tension eases, we must look in the direction of agriculture, industry and education as our final goals, and toward democracy under Mr Mubarak.
• 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.
• God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.
• God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.
• History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
• Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.
• I wake up early in the morning and walk for an hour. If I have something to write, I prefer to write in the morning until midday, and in the afternoon, I eat.
• I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening.