▶ 1911, December 1911, December 11th 1911, Egypt, Africa, …
▶ 2006, August 2006, August 30th 2006, Egypt, Africa, …
▶ Midaq Alley; Palace Walk; Cairo Trilogy; Children of Gebelawi; The Thief and the Dogs; …The Beggar; The Journey of Ibn Fattouma; Arabian Nights and Days; Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth; Miramar; Palace of Desire; The Day the Leader was Killed; The Harafish; The Search; The Beginning and the End
▶ Islam; person; Muslim; artist; writer; …
▶ "You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions."; "Without literature my life would be miserable."; "Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred."; "We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems."; "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."; …"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."; "The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art."; "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 Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions."; "The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems."; "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."; "Sadat made us feel more secure."; "One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages."; "My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize."; "It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts."; "Insults are the business of the court."; "In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works."; "If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion."; "If we reject science, we reject the common man."; "If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last."; "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."; "I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday."; "I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening."; "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."; "I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised."; "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."; "I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees."; "I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way."; "I accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in peace."; "Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free."; "History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself."; "God did not intend religion to be an exercise club."; "Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story."; "At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic."; "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."; "An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers."; "According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment."
