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

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 Quote

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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

God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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

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

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

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.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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 Quote

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.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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 Quote

I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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

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

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

Insults are the business of the court.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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

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 Quote

My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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

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 Quote

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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

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 Quote

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.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote

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

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

Without literature my life would be miserable.
- Naguib Mahfouz Quote