In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.

If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.

We are like a woman with a difficult pregnancy. We have to rebuild the social classes in Egypt, and we must change the way things were.

There are no heroes in most of my stories. I look at our society with a critical eye and find nothing extraordinary in the people I see.

As the tension eases, we must look in the direction of agriculture, industry and education as our final goals, and toward democracy under Mr Mubarak.

Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.