Naguib Mahfouz Quotes

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Naguib Mahfouz

Profession : Novelist

Birth : December 11, 1911

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.

Naguib Mahfouz

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.

Naguib Mahfouz

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.

Naguib Mahfouz

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.

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

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.

Naguib Mahfouz

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

Naguib Mahfouz

Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free.

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way.

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

Insults are the business of the court.

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

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.

Naguib Mahfouz

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

Naguib Mahfouz

One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.

Naguib Mahfouz