Until the June 1967 war I was completely caught up in the life of a young professor of English. Beginning in 1968 I started to think write and travel as someone who felt himself to be directly involved in the renaissance of Palestinian life and politics.

Young people don't want to be second to anyone. Everyone wants to be an overnight star. Look how many years I had to wait how many roads I had to travel how many songs I had to sing. And now I'm just beginning never ending.

I am blessed for what I have but I believed in it from the beginning. Today the dream is the same: I still want to travel I still want to entertain and I most certainly still want to have fun.

Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning.

Time has no divisions to mark its passage there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.

The shock of any trauma I think changes your life. It's more acute in the beginning and after a little time you settle back to what you were. However it leaves an indelible mark on your psyche.

Gay people are the sweetest kindest most artistic warmest and most thoughtful people in the world. And since the beginning of time all they've ever been is kicked.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.