Many Europeans think that all Moroccans speak French, but no. I had to make an effort to learn it when I studied French literature at the university in Rabat.

Writing and making films aren't different things to me. Or maybe it has become so, now. Making film is a very long process and you have to be physically strong. The literary work is more mystical, because it's only the writer, and connected to something inside.

I hate to express political ideas directly in a book. I don't want my books to be seen as an expression of this or that political idea. At the same time I want to show a kind of rebellion and transgression, something further.

People think that I only write about homosexuality, but that's not true.

So many people and institutions are against homosexuals that, as a homosexual, you can't waste your time by trying to convince them that you're a good person.

Everyone hasn't got the power to free oneself and go away to another place or country... No one is capable of freeing oneself from society.