Naguib Mahfouz Quotes

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I want a world where men live free from fear and coercion.

Oh...why has time changed us?

Beauty itself is a painful convulsion in the heart, an abundance of vitality in the soul, and a mad chase undertaken by the spirit until it encounters the heavens.

At times people who are extremely sad become lighthearted for the most trivial reasons, merely to obtain the relief furnished by the exactly opposite condition.

Don't go back over the past. Let it depart, never to return.

Why don’t we keep track of the happy moments, so that afterward we will believe them? Is he the same man Was he really sincere?

I want a world where hearts are not deceived and do not deceive others.

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

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

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.