Naguib Mahfouz Quotes

• Without literature my life would be miserable.

  Naguib Mahfouz

  Topics in Uncategorized

• If we reject science, we reject the common man.

  Naguib Mahfouz

  Topics in Religion

  Tags in Science

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

  Topics in Wisdom

  Tags in Questions

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

• 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.

  Naguib Mahfouz

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

• 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

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

• 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

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

• 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.

  Naguib Mahfouz

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

• The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.

  Naguib Mahfouz

• 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

• Sadat made us feel more secure.

  Naguib Mahfouz

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

• 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.

  Naguib Mahfouz

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

  Naguib Mahfouz

• Insults are the business of the court.

  Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz (46)

Birth:	11th December, 1911
Death:	30th August, 2006
Nationality:	Egyptian
Profession:	Novelist, Public Servant, Writer

Related Authors

• Ken Follett
• Anna Katharine Green
• Anne Cassidy
• John Biggins
• Gillian Slovo
• James Lane Allen
• Robert Williams Buchanan
• Anita Shreve
• Dashiell Hammett
• Candace Bushnell

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 2nd February

Births

• 1931 - Les Dawson
• 1923 - Liz Smith
• 1937 - Tom Osborne
• 1864 - Margot Asquith
• 1905 - Ayn Rand

Deaths

• 2005 - Max Schmeling
• 1980 - William Howard Stein
• 2004 - Alan Bullock
• 1884 - Wendell Phillips
• 1995 - Donald Pleasence