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" When you've been living in hope for a long time as I have, suddenly you realize that certainty is far more desirable than hope. "

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" When a dictatorship imprisons someone or makes them disappear, it's actually a very strategic move. We forget that. It's not as senseless as it seems. It's a way to silence someone, but also it's a way to silence their family as well, out of fear, and society by extension. "

" Nothing we read can import new or foreign feelings that we don't, in one form or another, already possess. "

" Civil war is a national crisis and also a private trauma: We suffer it collectively and in isolation. "

" Whenever I was encouraged by my elders to pick up a book, I was often told, 'Read so as to know the world.' And it is true; books have invited me into different countries, states of mind, social conditions and historical epochs; they have offered me a place at the most unusual gatherings. "

" Political dictatorships take possession not just of money and belongings but of narrative. "

" There is a tendency to over-exaggerate and over-romanticise the place of a writer in a revolution. That bothers me. I think it's inappropriate. "

" I am, by instinct, wary of revolutions. The gathering of the masses fills me with trepidation. "

" It is easy to underestimate the demands of an open heart. "

" I've never been particularly interested in genre distinctions. They seem to me more useful to a librarian than to a writer. "

" I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn't happened. "

" In 2006, I published my first novel, 'In the Country of Men.' The publication of the book gave me a bigger platform to speak about my father's abduction and Libya's human-rights record. "

" I think, ultimately, I am a sensualist and an aesthete. "

" The space where writing happens is a unique space that's hard to define, and when you're kicked out of it because you're travelling or distracted, it seems so elusive and hard to defend because you yourself doubt whether it existed. "

" I used to be a keen rider. Sometimes I could sense what a horse liked or preferred to do. "

" From before I was born, we Arabs have been caught between two forces that, seemingly, cannot be defeated: our ruthless dictators, who oppress and humiliate us, and the cynical western powers, who would rather see us ruled by criminals loyal to them than have democratically elected leaders accountable to us. "

" One of the frustrations of prison life, which is also one of its intended consequences, is that the prisoner is made ineffective. He is unable to be of much use. The aim is to render him powerless. "

" I don't believe people are interested in dates and facts. I don't think it is interesting to say what it is to be this person or that, but I do believe it is entertaining and perhaps even of value to express how it is to be that person. "

" For an overwhelming majority of my life, my country has been a source of pain, fear, and embarrassment. "

" Books have shown me horror and beauty. "

" The Arab Spring is a powerful and compelling response not only to an age of tyranny but also to the remnant chains of imperial influence. "

" When I'm writing, my mood is very good - and I love life. "

" Turgenev's achievement lies in how he succeeded, in spite of himself, his country, and his time, in exempting his work from public duty. This has given it that unnameable quality that makes every sentence true, every silence trustworthy. "

" We have defeated Gaddafi on the battlefield; now we must defeat him in our imagination. We must not allow his legacy to corrupt our dream. Let's keep focused on the true prize: unity, democracy, and the rule of law. Let's not seek revenge; that would diminish our future. "

" Like all novelists, I'm interested in the filters between reality and the imagination. "

" From my family alone, Qaddafi had imprisoned five men. "

" The laws of the lowly gangster govern Qaddafi and his sons. "

" I think my generation's inability to speak in absolute terms when it comes to politics is a very positive thing; it's made us more nuanced, made us more complex. "

" My father, the political dissident Jaballa Matar, disappeared from his home in Cairo in March 1990. "

" As a young boy in Libya, it was hard to escape the conclusion that the women were the most feeling and most functional part of society. "

" My family settled in Cairo in 1980. I was nine. I missed Libya terribly, but I also took to Cairo. I perfected the accent. People assumed I was Egyptian. "