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" 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. "

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" 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

Style

Own

Forget

" I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me. "

" History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself. "

" Sadat made us feel more secure. "

Naguib Mahfouz

Secure

Made

" 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. "

" I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening. "

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

" Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free. "

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

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

" 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. "

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

" God did not intend religion to be an exercise club. "

" 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. "

" At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic. "

Naguib Mahfouz

Age

Pessimistic

" 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. "

" According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment. "

Naguib Mahfouz

Punishment

Principles

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

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

Naguib Mahfouz

Nobel Prize

Effect

" If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last. "

Naguib Mahfouz

Want

Leave

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

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

Naguib Mahfouz

Lifestyle

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "