Khaleej Newspaper Interview (Sharjah, UAE)
.. Journalism is my profession and source of income but my literary writing is a basic part of what I am as a human being. I would confess it is not as simple as it sounds. In the West, writers who make a living from their literary writings are a few. They are vastly fewer in the Arab World. Literary writing in Arabic is not financially viable. I don't know many writers who make a living out of publishing novels or short stories. The situation is unlikely to change in the near future, not in my lifetime anyway. What is the alternative though? To leave writing to the princes, the wealthy and the high-salaried government officials and diplomats? Isn't it enough that they have the entire business market to roam as they please? More...

Oman Newspaper Interview (Oman)
... I met the novelist A. S. Bishtawi in London where he has taken residence. I began by noting that the novel Traces of a Tattoo brings to mind novels that do not conform to rules set by literary critics at a given time and imposed on writers and readers. I wanted to know why does it have something of everything: romance, realism, imagination, and whether he shares my belief that it provides an exemplary simple characterisation of otherwise complex existence of the characters. What, above all, is the message, or messages, he wanted to convey. More...

Al Quds Al Arabi Interview (London)
The publication of the novel Times of Death and Roses, has angered a number of friends and colleagues who, I think, did not understand the reason for choosing the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla and the Lebanese civil war as a backdrop for this work. I've been very careful in selecting my background information using only the most credible reports. I talked to numerous eyewitnesses and added all that to my own information. I do not care to lose all those who want me to lose them if otherwise I would be prevented from saying what I believe is true. They can go to hell, for all I care. More...

Al Alam (The World) Magazine Interview (London)
In the final analysis we spend our lives trying to satisfy the needs of our bellies, sexual organs, mind and soul. The basic issues are really very few in number and to put some, or all, of them under different lights is essentially an inward-outward experience. I do not believe we are simply talking here about literary projections but rather about an attempt to intersect an observed psychological case, or cases, in the hope that others may share them, or sympathise with them, and maybe see themselves in similar situations. The most important issue, in my opinion, is that writers should not view national struggles and social trends as irrelevant to their work but at the same time they should avoid turning their works into naked political statements because these will not please even the ultra committed of readers to the causes they espouse. More...