Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouzwas an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays over a 70-year career. Many of his works have been made into Egyptian and foreign films...
NationalityEgyptian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth11 December 1911
CityCairo, Egypt
CountryEgypt
My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.
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.
Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.
I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.
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.
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.
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.
Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free.
I accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in peace.
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.
The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.
Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought.
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.