كنت أدع نفسي للأيام، كنت أقول: لعله ينساها.. لعل خديجة تقصيها.. لعل ولعل مع الأيام، وخلا من بالي أنه لم تعد هناك أيام.. وأكل الموت خديجة، ليصير الألم ألمين.. ألم الفراق وألم الضمير.

I left myself to the days. I kept saying: perhaps it will forget her, perhaps Khadija will drive her out, perhaps and perhaps, with the days; and it never crossed my mind that there were no more days. Then death devoured Khadija, and the pain became two pains: the pain of parting and the pain of conscience.

وأحسب أن اليهودي إنسان والصهيوني إنسان آخر، وكان جدي مثلًا حيًا من لحم ودم لليهودي الصالح الذي كفل يتيمًا مسلمًا معوزًا مثلي، ويسر له كل سبل الحياة على قدر ما يستطيع، بل وفضله على غيره من أحفاده الخُلَصّ. جدي الذي لم يفرق بين دينه الذي يحبه ووطنه الذي ولد وتربى فيه، فكلاهما مقدس لديه وواجب الاحترام.

I hold that the Jew is one person and the Zionist another, and my grandfather was a living example in flesh and blood of the righteous Jew who took in a needy Muslim orphan like me, eased every path in life for him as far as he could, and even preferred him over his own full-blooded grandchildren. My grandfather, who never set the religion he loved against the homeland where he was born and raised: both were sacred to him and deserving of respect.

معايا الجنسية الفرنساوية آه، لكن كذاب اللي يقول إني مطمن وعايش بين أهلي وناسي! لا لغتي لغتهم ولا طبعهم طبعي ولا عيشتي عيشتهم، لا أنا منهم ولا همَّه مني، دا أنا عامل زى التايه اللي ماشي يتلفت يمين وشمال!

Yes, I have French citizenship. But whoever says I feel at ease here, living among my own people, is a liar. Their language isn't mine, their ways aren't mine, their life isn't mine; I'm not of them and they're not of me. I'm like a lost man walking along, looking left and right.