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
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.
History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.
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.
Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life.
In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.
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.
Visit me once each year, for it's wrong to abandon people 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
The Arab world also won the Nobel with me.
I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.
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.
In the calculus of good deeds you have the most to gain.
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.