Maturity is when you start feeling the motion of zaman (time) as if it is a sensuous caress. p.216

Writing is one of the most ancient forms of prayer. To write is to believe communication is possible that other people are good, that you can awaken their generosity and their desire to do better.

The real mistake of women was to let the memoir, the collective, the history, space of producing history - to let it in the hands of men.

Nature is woman's best friend,' she [Yasmina] often said. 'If you're having troubles, you just swim in the water, stretch out in a field, or look up at the stars. That's how a woman cures her fears'.

Being frozen into the passive position of an object whose very existence depends on the eye of its beholder turn the educated modern Western women into a harem slave.

Pessimism is the luxury of the powerful.

I, as a Muslim woman living in 1993, I want to have two things - the mosque and the satellite, both at the same time. And no one can mutilate me by telling me I cannot have the mosque or the Koran.

I am intelligent enough to be critical towards the West and take what I need and reject what is bad for me.

Morocco is such a beautiful place. It's incredibly beautiful. And also it is captivating place because for a writer, you feel that you make impact.

Someone else is going to read for me or go at my place to the mosque, and/or to tell me you shouldn't take anything from the West because the West is the enemy and so on. It is to me to decide.

But when your situation is hopeless, all you can do is turn the world upside down, transform it according to your wishes, and create anew.

Time is lost when we have not lived a full human life time unenriched by experience creative endeavor enjoyment and suffering.

Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I've never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I've never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity.

People would tell me sometimes that I should model, but I was like, I dont know!

Part of me likes words as music sabotage, and part of me wonders why anyone would waste their time liking anything to do with sabotage.

Always do things the least interesting way, the most blunt way, and you make a better movie. This is my experience.

Good works are indispensable to salvation - not as its ground or means, however, but as its consequence and evidence.

Death is the opening of a more subtle life. In the flower, it sets free the perfume; in the chrysalis, the butterfly; in man, the soul.

I write the songs, go in and record them, then I listen to everything and decide how it all fits together.

Actually... I'm starting a new thing and rebelling against ridiculously high heels. It's inhumane.

Business is a spiritual pursuit. Your business will not grow unless you grow as a person