Naguib Mahfouz Quotes
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History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
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I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.
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I reject any path which rejects life, but I can't help loving Sufism because it sounds so beautiful. It gives relief in the midst of battle.
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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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If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.
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If we reject science, we reject the common man.
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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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At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.
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We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems.
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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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One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.
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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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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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Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.
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I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.
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I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way.
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If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.
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God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.
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Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life.
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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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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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Sadat made us feel more secure.
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The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.
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Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.