Don't imagine that a word you say is going to make a blind bit of difference.

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

The Qaddafis, father and sons, speak the grammar of dictatorship: threats and bribery.

The romantic idea of the penniless writer is false. It's terrible. I hated being in debt. I hated the anxiety of not knowing whether we could pay our rent that month. Thankfully, I had a wife who was very supportive and had faith and shared my madness.

There's always a problem when you write, something you're trying to resolve, and sometimes a view can be inspiring.

To me, writing is like singing in the most inappropriate place, singing as beautifully as you can on a bus or in a bank, where people least expect it, and trying to get them to want to listen.

One of the reasons why Gadafy's dictatorship has managed to remain in power for so long is not just because it has shown itself to be able to exact a great deal of violence, both psychological and physical, on its people, but because it has been very successful at imposing a narrative, a story.

My work is my shelter, particularly in these moments when things are happening fast.

To be okay with not knowing is a sign of a mature person and a mature society.

Being my father's son is a kind of privilege.

I am longing to see Libya rejoin the world as the internationalist Mediterranean country that it was.

Throughout my entire life, I have lived in the shadow of the dictatorship. It denied me safety and security.

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

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

From my family alone, Qaddafi had imprisoned five men.

Audacity, hope, courage - the Libyans have these in abundance. But all those boring little things - like organization, building a committee - is hard; making decisions and moving ahead is hard.

My father believed in armed struggle.

I ultimately write for myself and the people I love.

There are two voices: the first says write; the second hardly speaks, but I know what he wants. And if I let him, nothing would get done. He hovers at the edges.

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

There's something very bizarre about having a father who has disappeared. It's very hard to articulate.

Living in hope is a really terrible thing.

Some of the most powerful memories are those when you are very, very young. Adult life is seen through the reflection of complex, rational thought.

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.