Quotes By Naguib Mahfouz

I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.

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.

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.

I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees.

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.

I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.

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.

The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.

If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.

God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.

I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening.

I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.

In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.

We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems.

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.

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.

I've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party.

The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.

Insults are the business of the court.

It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.

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.

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.

If we reject science, we reject the common man.

Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.

Without literature my life would be miserable.

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.

I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.

My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.