Naguib Mahfouz

Only the poor are handicapped by honor.

— Naguib Mahfouz

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— Naguib Mahfouz

We wont develop until we accept that reading is a vital necessity.

— Naguib Mahfouz

I found myself in a sea in which the waves of joy and sorrow were clashing against each other.

— Naguib Mahfouz

"Death by love is fairer by far than death by illness", said Amenhotep III.

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— Naguib Mahfouz

“But not to take a step forward is to take two steps backward", Abnum protested. ~ Before the Throne”

— Naguib Mahfouz

History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always…

— Naguib Mahfouz

“Isn't it sad that a man of no significance like this marriage clerk should impede the progress of your life? But a…

— 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

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

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— Naguib Mahfouz

We are like a woman with a difficult pregnancy. We have to rebuild the social classes in Egypt, and we must change…

— Naguib Mahfouz

“As for the sins committed during his revolution, there are always criminals who conceal themselves among the restless masses to launch their…

— Naguib Mahfouz

Literature should be more revolutionary than revolutions themselves; writers must find the means to continue to be critical of the negative elements…

— Naguib Mahfouz

Writing is for men who can think and feel, not mindless sensation seekers out of nightclubs and bars. But these are bad…

— Naguib Mahfouz

“His lover appeared to have boarded the train at Auguste Comte and passed by the station of theology, where the password was…

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— 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

According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment.

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— 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

“The One God fashioned women to expose the elements men are made of" said Queen Nefertiti.”

— Naguib Mahfouz

“No blasphemy harms Islam and Muslims so much as the call for murdering a writer”

— Naguib Mahfouz

Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought.

— Naguib Mahfouz

“We usually exchange bare civilities at breakfast and then settle back to loathe each other cordially in silence.”

— Naguib Mahfouz

I accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in…

— Naguib Mahfouz

Visit me once each year, for it's wrong to abandon people forever.

— Naguib Mahfouz

An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers.

— Naguib Mahfouz

“Life…is a wonder. It is a sky laden with clouds of contradictions.”

— Naguib Mahfouz

paraphrasing.."Science is the language of the intellect of society. Art is language of the entire human personality.

— Naguib Mahfouz

Home is not where you were born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease.

— 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

The calendar has a magic that makes us imagine a memory can be resurrected and revived, but nothing returns.

— Naguib Mahfouz

Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.

— Naguib Mahfouz

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

— Naguib Mahfouz