Nizar Qabbani quotes:

The female doesn't want a rich man or a handsome man or even a poet, she wants a man who understands her eyes if she gets sad, and points to his chest and say : 'Here is your home country.'

The word is a bouncing ball The ruler throws from his balcony. The word has been a shot of morphine. Rulers calm their people with speeches.

Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up.

Dive into the sea, or stay away

Love in the Arab world is like a prisoner, and I want to set (it) free. I want to free the Arab soul, sense and body with my poetry. The relationships between men and women in our society are not healthy.

Light is more important than the lantern,The poem more important than the notebook

A tragedy, when a mature mind and a romantic heart are in the same body.

It's painful to listen to the barking of dogs.

Kill him, then hug him. Men are more faithful when dead.

Some are like the Moon, good looking, but only when they're away from you.

Don't love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.

The most dangerous heart disease: strong memory

never believe a man can change a woman those men are pretenders who think that they created women from one of their ribs

Had I told the seaWhat I felt for you,It would have left its shores,Its shells,Its fish,And followed me.

Your love taught me to grieveand I have been needing, for centuriesa woman to make me grievefor a woman, to cry upon her armslike a sparrowfor a woman to gather my pieceslike shards of broken crystal

And all the countries seemed the same, That I don't see myself there, And I don't see myself here.

And I fear that my place gets taken by some other one, very lucky and not too shy, who flirts with your eyes while I'm the one who's crazy about them.

And the writing is still : to you, with you, about you, because of you and for you.

Arab children, Corn ears of the future, You will break our chains, Kill the opium in our heads, Kill the illusions. Arab children, Don't read about our suffocated generation, We are a hopeless case. We are as worthless as a water-melon rind. Dont read about us, Dont ape us, Dont accept us, Dont accept our ideas, We are a nation of crooks and jugglers. Arab children, Spring rain, Corn ears of the future, You are the generation That will overcome defeat.

Before you came the world was prose. Now poetry is born.

Days will pass, and you'll abandon things you were addicted to, and leave someone, and cancel a dream, and finally, accept a reality.

Don't lose a woman that has seen your flaws and still love you.

If you want to kill somebody, conquer his heart, Then leave slowly and leave them between death and madness.

In the summer I stretch out on the shore And think of you. Had I told the sea What I felt for you, It would have left its shores, Its shells, Its fish, And followed me.

Life doesn't stop after losing someone, but it goes on without them differently.

My lover asks me: "What is the difference between me and the sky?" The difference, my love, Is that when you laugh, I forget about the sky

My Master... Say all you wish of me. It does not matter to me:Shallow.. Stupid.. Crazy.. Simple minded. It does not concern me anymore. For whoever writes about her concerns. in the logic of Men is called a stupid woman. and didn't I tell you in the beginning that I am a stupid woman?

O Sultan, my master, if my clothes are ripped and torn it is because your dogs with claws are allowed to tear me.

Our enemies did not cross our borders They crept through our weaknesses like ants.

Our shouting is louder than our actions, Our swords are taller than us, This is our tragedy. In short We wear the cape of civilisation But our souls live in the stone age

There are some people that we didn't forget, but we don't smile any more when they're mentioned.

There is who loves you quietly, and respects you quietly, and wishes you privately, and walks away when he sees you busy with someone other than him, and his ego restrains him from getting near you, and contents himself with the love for the sake of love

We are a thick skinned people with emtpy souls. We spend our days playing dice, chess, or sleeping - and we say we are the best people that ever came to mankind?

We need an angry generation, A generation to plow the horizons

We praise like frogs, Swear like frogs, Turn midgets into heroes, and heroes into scum: We never stop and think.

What we feel is beyond words. We should be ashamed of our poems.

When a man is in love how can he use old words? Should a woman desiring her lover lie down with grammarians and linguists? I said nothing to the woman I loved but gathered love's adjectives into a suitcase and fled from all languages.

We killed you and it was not new for us, we killed the companions of the Prophet and the friends of God. O how many Messengers did we slay? O how many imams? We killed you and you prayed the night prayer, as all of our days are struggle - and all of our days are Karbala.