Naguib Mahfouz Quotes
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I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees.
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I was afraid of marriage. I had the impression married life would take up all my time. I saw myself drowning in visits and parties. No freedom.
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The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.
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Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life.
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My countrymen have the right to shake my hand and talk to me if they so wish. Don't forget that their support and their reading of my works is what brought me the Nobel prize.
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I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening.
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I defend both the freedom of expression and society's right to counter it. I must pay the price for differing. It is the natural way of things.
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Insults are the business of the court.
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Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free.
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If life has no meaning, why don't we create a meaning for it?
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When you spend time with your friends, what do you talk about? Those things which made an impression on you that day, that week ... I write stories the same way. Events at home, in school, at work, in the street, these are the bases for a story. Some experiences leave such a deep impression that instead of talking about them at the club I work them into a novel.
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The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.
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There are no heroes in most of my stories. I look at our society with a critical eye and find nothing extraordinary in the people I see.
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The calendar has a magic that makes us imagine a memory can be resurrected and revived, but nothing returns.
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It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.
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The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level.
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I've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party.
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I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry, but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you, come and sit, relax and enjoy yourself for a while.
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We are like a woman with a difficult pregnancy. We have to rebuild the social classes in Egypt, and we must change the way things were.
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The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.
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As for life's tragedies, our love will defeat them. Love is the most effective cure. In the crevices of disasters, happiness lies like a diamond in a mind, so let us instill in ourselves the wisdom of love.
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I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.
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It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.
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As the tension eases, we must look in the direction of agriculture, industry and education as our final goals, and toward democracy under Mr Mubarak.
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I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization; the second, one thousand four hundred years old, is the Islamic civilization.
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Writing is for men who can think and feel, not mindless sensation seekers out of nightclubs and bars. But these are bad times. We are condemned to work with upstarts, clowns who no doubt got their training in a circus and then turned to journalism as the appropriate place to display their tricks.
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Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.
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We used the Western style to express our own themes and stories. But don't forget that our heritage includes The Thousand and One Nights.
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My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.
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In the calculus of good deeds you have the most to gain.
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