Quotes by Naguib Mahfouz

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

An anxious heart is like a string that's out of tune.

In the calculus of good deeds you have the most to gain.

I was afraid of marriage. I had the impression married life would take up all my time. I saw myself drowning in visits and parties. No freedom.

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.

Despite dissimilarities in our luck and success at looking after ourselves, we are all human beings.

Art is a criticism of society and life, and I believe that if life became perfect, art would be meaningless and cease to exist.

Madness is the acme of intelligence.

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

After living for a month in his home, her character had been infected with the virus of submission to his will, which terrified everyone in the house.

A crazy country, choking air, polluted hearts, treachery. Treachery and treason.

Nightlife is filled with personal tragedies.

For the first time in my life, I felt that a wave, a justice was sweeping away a deep-seated decay without any indulgence. I dearly wished that it would keep going without hesitation or deviation, in a spirit of purity forever.

I believe in life and in people. I feel obliged to advocate their highest ideals as long as I believe them to be true. I also see myself compelled to revolt against ideals I believe to be false, since recoiling from rebellion would be a form of treason.

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

There is no alternative to action, and that requires faith. The issue is how we are to mold for ourselves a belief system that is worthy of life.

When will the state of the country be sound?... When its people believe that the end result of cowardice is more disastrous than that of behaving with integrity.

The real malady is fear of life, not of death.

Laugh till you're exhausted.

If life has no meaning, why don't we create a meaning for it?

It's not surprising that truly humanitarian manifestos originate frequently in minority circles or with people whose consciences are troubled by the problems of minorities.

Nothing records the effects of a sad life so graphically as the human body.

Only the poor are handicapped by honor.

I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization; the second, one thousand four hundred years old, is the Islamic civilization.

Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.

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

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.

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

A priest's life is spent between question and answer -- or between a question and the attempt to answer it. The question is the summary of the spiritual life.

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

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

Death is more merciful than hope itself! There is nothing surprising in this, for death is divinely appointed, while hope is the creation of human folly. Both end in frustration. Am I destined to lead a life of endless frustration?
-(The Beginning and the End).

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

As for life's tragedies, our love will defeat them. Love is the most effective cure. In the crevices of disasters, happiness lies like a diamond in a mind, so let us instill in ourselves the wisdom of love.

April. Month of dust and lies.

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

It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Sadat made us feel more secure.

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

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

Insults are the business of the court.

Without literature my life would be miserable.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.

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

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.

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

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.

It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.

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

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

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

If we reject science, we reject the common man.

I wake up early in the morning and walk for an hour. If I have something to write, I prefer to write in the morning until midday, and in the afternoon, I eat.

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

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 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.

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

God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.