Alaa Al Aswany

Illiteracy does not impede the practice of democracy, as witnessed by the success of democracy in India despite the high illiteracy rate.…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“...he was one of the great intellectuals of the 1940s who completed their higher studies in the West and returned to their…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“She represents the beauty of the common people in all its vulgarity and provocativeness.”

— Alaa Al Aswany

Egyptians are like camels: they can put up with beatings, humiliation and starvation for a long time but when they rebel they…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“I lived through beautiful times, Busayna. It was a different age. Cairo was like Europe. It was clean and smart and the…

— Alaa Al Aswany

If you can't find good in your own country, you won't find it anywhere else.

— Alaa Al Aswany

“If you can’t find good in your own country, you won’t find it anywhere else.” The words slipped out from Zaki Bey,…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“Sheikh Bilal had taken him aside the day before the wedding and spoken to him of marriage and his wife’s rights in…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“...oh that short hair, a la garcon that evokes unfamiliar, boyish kinds of sex.”

— Alaa Al Aswany

I am according to my slave's expectations of me: if good, then good, and if bad, then bad.

— Alaa Al Aswany

“He had worked out long ago that police officers evaluated a citizen on the basis of three factors—his appearance, his occupation, and…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“The concept of the benevolent dictator, just like the concepts of the noble thief or the honest whore, is no more than…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“She had lost her compassion for people and a thick crust of indifference had formed around her feelings - that disgust that…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“Later he would ponder the relation between our extreme desire for something and our ability to realize it- was what we wanted…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“Education, medical treatment, and work are the natural rights of every citizen in the world.”

— Alaa Al Aswany

“Oh God, how did he get to be sixty? How quickly the years had passed! His whole life had passed before he…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“Our love of beauty is merely a trick produced by the way we look, and the broader the vision grows the clearer…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“What led to September 11 is that most decision makers in the White House thought like you. They supported despotic regimes in…

— Alaa Al Aswany

Everything that happened to you is a page that's been turned and is done with.

— Alaa Al Aswany

Revolution is like a love story. When you are in love, you become a much better person. And when you are in…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“The writer of fiction is not a scholar but an artist impacted emotionally by characters from life, who then strives to present…

— Alaa Al Aswany

A fascinating book and a great pleasure to read: Betool Khedairi is a talented new voice in fiction.

— Alaa Al Aswany

“It became clear to her that all men, however respectable in appearance and however elevated their position in society, were utter weaklings…

— Alaa Al Aswany

“...and that spark will flash in her eyes confirming that her mind never stops working, even in the heat of passion.”

— Alaa Al Aswany