My mum and dad were speaking all the time about, 'In Sudan we do this,' and 'In Egypt we do that,' so I was very aware of cultural differences. I was confused growing up; it gave me a feeling of being an outsider watching others. But I think this is good for a writer.

When I was growing up, we spoke Egyptian, we ate Egyptian food, we had other Egyptian friends. It was my father's preference.

I was 24 years old and stuck in a strange place with two boisterous little boys, and my husband was working offshore on the oil rigs. It was a life for which I wasn't prepared.

That's what religion teaches: that life is a temporary thing which is going to dissolve one day.

Don't watch a lot of television, don't listen to a lot of music. God. What have I been doing with all my time? I'm a bore.

God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things.

My foster parents were very religious. They told me that they had not decided to take me in, rather that it was God that had decided it for them.

I do not believe that God tortures any person simply for its own sake. I believe that God enables all things to work for the greater good.