Naguib Mahfouz Quotes
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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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The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.
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I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me.
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I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.
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Insults are the business of the court.
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In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.
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I accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in peace.
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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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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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I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening.
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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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It was amazing that in this country where people allowed emotion to guide their politics they approached love with the precision of accountants.
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Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.
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You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
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I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning.
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An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers.
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My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.
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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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According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment.
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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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The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.
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Without literature my life would be miserable.
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A priest's life is spent between question and answer-- or between a question and the attempt to answer it. The question is the summary of the spiritual life.
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I wake up early in the morning and walk for an hour. If I have something to write, I prefer to write in the morning until midday, and in the afternoon, I eat.