I jokingly say if there was one great thing about, you know, the Lebanese Civil War was that it forced me to read.

When the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, I was 15. I was shipped to boarding school in England and, after that, to UCLA.

The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, spanned four World Cups. It would have been a more symmetrical five had the Lebanese begun in 1974, but you know, we're Mediterranean, and timing isn't our forte.

When I was a girl, civil war in Sudan forced me to flee my home town of Wau.

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

It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.