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I speak five languages besides mine. I went to school in Egypt because girls weren't allowed to go to school in Saudi Arabia. It's very restricting, especially for girls; we're not allowed to go anywhere.

Everybody needs to understand that I learned Arabic from the United States Army as a second language. I never spoke it at home.

As teenagers, a lot of us just did not want much to do with Arabic culture - we looked to the West.

I do not use the language of my people. I can take liberties with certain themes which the Arabic language would not allow me to take.

I don't know Arabic. I can't speak or write it.

I was 12 when my parents told me we were moving to Lebanon. I remember thinking, 'Leba-who?' I had absolutely no concept of the place.

Arabs respect only the language of force.

But my Arabic is pretty good. It's good enough to have conversations with people, to understand what they say, to understand what they're feeling.

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

I grew up in Jerusalem and went to school here. I studied at the Hebrew University - mostly Islam and Arabic: Arab literature, Arab poetry and culture, because I felt like we are living in this region, in the Middle East, and we are not alone: There are nations here whose culture is Arab.