“I get upset about what is taken as great literature and what is cute and exotic.”

“'Harat' is actually - it's a Lebanese dialect word. It comes from 'the mapmaker,' somebody who makes a map. And it basically means somebody who tells fibs or exaggerate tales a little bit.”

“Whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative.”

“I always say show me a storyteller who doesn't embellish, and I'll show you a bad one.”