“I'm not interested in how things were, or how we ended up where we are now. What interests me is what we are now and what we will be.”

“So let the storm rage. Let the storm rage.”

“The middle class, in any society, plays the role of graphite rods in nuclear reactors: they slow down the reaction and, if it weren't for them, the reactor would explode. A society without a middle class is a society primed for explosion.”

“لقد جمع بلفور اليهود فى وطن واحد وعدهم به و بهذا أراح العالم منهماعتقادى ان هناك وعداً آخر .. ثمة شخص جمع الأوغاد و الخاملين و الأفاقين و فاقدى الهمة من أرجاء الأرض فى وطن قومى واحد هو مصر .. لهذا لا تجد فى اليابان فاقد همة .. لهذا لا تجد فىى ألمانيا وغداً .. لهذا لا تجد فى الأرجنتين أفاقاً .. كلهم هنا يا صاحبى!”

“She thought of Aziza's stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.”

“When pondering how the past affected us, we rarely look for OUR effect on it. We think about what we were up against versus what we stood for. We remember what we feared but not what we dreamed. We ponder how much we were loved versus how much we loved. We think, why did all that happen to me? What did I get out of it? Where will it lead me? When perhaps we should wonder, what did I make happen? What did I give? Where will I direct myself now?”

“Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words.Mine was Baba.His was Amir. My name.Looking back on it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975 —and all that followed— was already laid in those first words.”