“I lived in countries that had no democracy. so I don’t find myself in the same luxury as you do. You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom because you don’t know what it is not to have freedom.”

We have to start with the little babies who are born now, socialize them in freedom and critical thinking. We don’t have to throw away their faith. People confuse the two, thinking if you are enlightened that means apostasy. It doesn’t.

The West is duly terrified. But it should not be surprised.

The demand that Islam makes of women is to not attract attention to yourself, and if you are in a secular society, that attire does exactly that, and it is a political symbol, no longer religious.

The more we oblige, the more we self-censor, the more we appease, the bolder the enemy gets.

There are some mosques with facilities for women; it’s usually a back room with a back-door entrance.

I love life more than I love death.

What we are now doing with the victory, and I agree with you if you condemn that and I condemn whole-heartedly the trivial bullshit it is to go after a man who makes a scientific breakthrough and all that we as women — organized women — do is to fret about his shirt?

In 2010, I suggested that if you are a good Muslim with a good conscience, go and look for a better God, and I think that was juvenile of me.

What I find daunting always is to stand on a stage and talk to people, whether they agree with me or not.

In a sense, my grandmother was living in the Iron Age. There was no system of writing among the nomads. Metal artifacts were rare and precious…. The first time she saw a white person my grandmother was in her thirties: she thought this person’s skin had burned off.

My first experience in the Netherlands was very pleasant, extremely pleasant. I mean, I got my residence permit, refugee status, within four weeks of arrival. People treated me extremely well.

I wanted secular, non-Muslim people to stop kidding themselves that Islam is peace and tolerance.

I would like to be judged on the validity of my arguments, not as a victim.

Unlike the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth, the umma, or Muslim community, has no symbolic leader, let alone a formal one.

Every time you take a train, step into your car, walk into the shopping mall, go to the airport – every single time, something could happen. That’s how terrorism works.

I come from a world where the word ‘trauma’ doesn’t exist, because we are too poor. I didn’t have an easy life compared to the average European. But compared to the average African, it wasn’t all that bad.

I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.

It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe that is not arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what kind of thing the universe is.

I am not sure of anything, I know nothing. Can you imagine that I don’t even know the date of my own death?

What I’m really concerned about is reaching one person. And that person may be myself for all I know.

I’m not messing around with nobody’s woman. If I want a woman I go get her – you know what I mean?

I don’t like to hear someone put down dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know.

Artt Frank is my all-time favorite drummer. He always seems to know where I’m going.

White folks always think that you have to have a label on everything – you know what I mean?