Naguib Mahfouz

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

I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees.

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

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

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

I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.

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

If we reject science, we reject the common man.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Sadat made us feel more secure.

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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