Naguib Mahfouz Quotes 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 Insults are the business of the court. ― Naguib Mahfouz If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion. ― Naguib Mahfouz If we reject science, we reject the common man. ― Naguib Mahfouz I've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party. ― Naguib Mahfouz I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening. ― Naguib Mahfouz 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 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 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 I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees. ― Naguib Mahfouz 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 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 God did not intend religion to be an exercise club. ― Naguib Mahfouz Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story. ― Naguib Mahfouz At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic. ― Naguib Mahfouz 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
